!,;'-•' , 


PRESENTED  TO  THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

PRINCETON  THEOLOGICHL  SEMINHRY 


Ppofessop  }i^riipy  van  Dyke,  D.D.,  LiLi.O. 

Broods';  WaUer  R.  1821-188 
God  in  nature  and  life 


RV  ^^-JTi   T5  7«;  n^ 


GOD   L\   NATURE  AND   LIFE. 


GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 


SELECTIONS 


THE    SERMONS   AND  WETTINGS 


OP 


WALTER   R.  BROOKS. 


NEW   YORK: 
ANSON  D.    F.    RANDOLPH   AND   CO. 

38  West  Twentt-Thied  Street. 


Copyright,  1SS9, 
By  Anson  D.  F.  Randolph  and  Co. 


JJSnibctsftn  ^9ress : 
John  Wilson  and  Son,  Cambridge. 


PREFACE. 


'T^IIE  sermons  and  other  writings  collected  in  this 
-^  volume  are  designed  to  preserve  in  affectionate 
hearts  the  memory  of  a  great,  fresh,  powerful  mind, 
that  was  in  love  with  God  and  truth.  The  volume 
is  intended  also  as  one  more  expression  of  Dr. 
Brooks's  favorite  thoughts.  The  sermons  were  all 
preached  between  1858  and  1873,  when  he  was  the 
pastor  of  the  Baptist  Church  in  Hamilton,  N.  Y. 
The  two  lectures  belong  to  a  slightly  earlier  period. 
The  Book  of  Prayers  gradually  grew  up  from  Dr, 
Brooks's  own  experience,  and  was  put  into  its  present 
form  for  the  use  of  a  friend.  It  is  here  given  as  it 
left  his  hand,  the  few  selections  which  he  added  to 
his  own  work  having  been  retained.  The  printed 
sermons  represent  the  manuscripts  as  they  are ;  but 
there  is  reason  to  doubt  whether  Dr.  Brooks  ever 
wrote  a  sermon  in  full  as  he  preached  it.  The  manu- 
scripts are  often  disappointing  to  hearers  who  re- 
member how  they  have  been  thrilled  by  some  lofty 
passage,  thrown  in  as  he  was  speaking.      The  best 


vi  PREFACE. 

things  often  came  in  this  way.  Yet  in  spite  of  this  in- 
completeness, it  is  hoped  that  the  book  may  be  recog- 
nized as  truly  characteristic  of  the  man.  If  it  gives 
expression  to  his  lofty  faith  in  God,  his  marvellous 
interest  in  Nature,  and  his  profound  love  of  truth,  it 
will  not  merely  revive  precious  memories,  but  per- 
petuate a  noble  influence. 


WILLIAM  N.  CLARKE. 


Hamilton,  N.  Y., 

October,  1889. 


CONTENTS. 


Sermons. 

Paob 

God  the  One  Lord 11 

Meeting  with  God 23 

The  Pattern  of  Life 38 

Loving  Jesus 55 

The  Real  Presence 65 

The  History  of  a  Soul 77 

The  Way  of  Perfection 91 

Uncertainty 105 

Walking  on  the  Sea 117 

Lessons  from  the  Summer 134 

The  Lesson  of  the  Leaves 149 

The  Day 165 


ILcrturrs  anti  iHi'scdIaneous  Paptrg. 

Sources  of  Spiritual  Conviction 181 

Statements 206 

The  Balancing  of  the  Clouds 226 

The  Fire  in  the  Burning  Bush 230 

Briefer  Extracts 236 


viii  CONTEXTS. 

a  Book  of  Pragcrs. 

Page 

Te  Deum 253 

Prayer  for  Spiritual  Life 254 

Prayer  to  anticipate  the  Day 256 

A  Prayer  for  Morning  Use 257 

A  Prayer  from  the  Greek  Service 258 

A  Lesson  of  Evening  Worship 259 

Evening  Prayer 260 

A  Prayer  for  the  Evening 262 

A  Litany 264 

A  Prayer  for  Evening  Use 267 

A  Mother's  Prayer  for  her  Children 269 

A  Prayer  for  Help  in  Common  Life 271 

Thoughts 27;i 

A  Lesson  of  Submission  and  Hope 274 

An  Act  of  Patience  and  Resignation 275 

A  Prayer  of  Submission 276 

Sentences  of  Comfort  in  Sorrow 277 

An  Act  of  Hope "'^ 

An  Occasional  Prayer 281 

An  Act  of  Fellowship 282 

A  Lesson  of  God  in  Nature 286 

An  Act  of  Worship 287 


SERMONS. 


GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 


GOD   THE   ONE   LORD. 

Hear,  0  Israel!  the  Lord  our  God  is  one  Lord. 
Deut.  vi.  4. 

THIS  "form  of  sound  words"  was  the  compre- 
hensive creed  of  the  nation  of  Israel.  On  all 
great  occasions  it  was  the  rallying-cry  of  the  people 
of  God.  It  was  their  battle-cry  in  time  of  war.  This 
doctrine  of  the  unity  of  God  was  the  truth  that  sepa- 
rated the  Israelites  from  the  nations  of  the  earth.  This 
fact  is  the  greatest  of  stumbling-blocks  to  those  who 
would  deny  any  revelation  from  God  to  men;  because 
it  is  unaccountable  that  in  such  early  times,  and  amid 
universal  idolatry,  any  people  should  have  risen  to  the 
great  discovery  of  the  unity  of  God,  without  a  revela- 
tion of  this  truth  from  Him.  No  man  of  himself  could 
ever  have  risen  to  this  conception,  except  from  such 
a  knowledge  of  the  unity  of  all  the  forces  of  Nature 
as  was  impossible  in  the  times  of  Abraham  and  Moses. 
Many  gods,  of  many  different  characters  and  powers, 
are  the  natural  conception  of  men,  who  see  in  Nature 
such  diversities  and  contradictions  of  good  and  evil, 
life  and  death.  Only  a  revelation  of  God  to  men  could 
account  for  the  existence  of  this  jrreat  truth.     There  is 


12  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND   LIFE. 

something  grand  and  inspiring  in  the  thought  of  this 
glorious  cry  sounding  out  amid  the  universal  idolatry 
of  the  world,  —  "  Hear,  0  Israel !  the  Lord  our  God  is 
one  Lord ! " 

There  are  many  aspects  of  this  great  truth  which  it 
would  be  interesting  and  profitable  to  consider.  I  am 
concerned  to-day,  however,  with  only  one,  which  will 
be  expressed  by  an  emphasis  on  the  last  word,  —  "  The 
Lord  our  God  is  one  Lord."  In  all  the  great  and  wide 
universe  there  is  but  one  lordship,  one  controlling  will, 
one  governing,  guiding  force  and  presence.  As  all  the 
different  elements,  members,  and  functions  of  our  bodies 
find  their  unity  in  the  one  indwelling  life  and  will  of 
our  spirits,  and  thus  a  man  is  one,  a  unity,  though 
having  many  members,  and  each  member  a  different 
office,  so  the  universe,  with  all  its  elements,  parts,  and 
motions,  finds  its  unity  in  the  one  indwelling  life  and 
will  of  God.  The  universe  is  one,  —  a  universe,  —  be- 
cause all  brought  together,  and  held  together,  and  con- 
trolled by  one  and  the  same  will  and  life  of  God.  Many 
letters  form  one  word,  though  each  has  a  different  sound 
of  its  own.  Although  when  separated  the  letters  are 
the  most  arbitrary,  unconnected,  and  unmeaning  things 
in  the  world,  yet  when  united  to  form  a  word,  they  are 
made  a  unity  by  the  idea  which  unites  them,  and  which 
they  express.  All  the  numberless  parts  of  tlie  universe 
are  but  the  letters  which  spell  the  name  of  God.  They 
make  one  word,  and  that  word  means  Him.  There  is 
one  God,  and  all  things  were  made  by  Him.  Thus  the 
unity  of  God  necessarily  involves  the  unity  of  the  uni- 
verse. There  is  one  life  in  all  things,  one  meaning,  one 
power  of  control,  in  all  things ;  for  "  all  things  are  of 


GOD  THE  ONE  LORD.  13 

God."  Heaven,  where  angels  and  saints  behold  His 
glory  and  walk  in  His  love,  is  of  God.  He  made 
heaven,  He  lives  in  it,  it  is  the  place  of  God ;  but  uo 
more  than  the  earth.  He  made  the  earth,  He  lives  in 
it,  in  the  earth  His  daily  work  is  done.  It  is  as  much 
and  as  entirely  of  God  as  heaven.  The  difference  be- 
tween heaven  and  earth  is  not  a  difference  of  God's 
presence,  but  of  our  condition  and  apprehension.  Jesus 
said,  "  No  man  hath  ascended  up  into  heaven,  but  He 
that  came  down  from  heaven,  even  the  Son  of  man, 
which  is  in  heaven."  He  was  on  earth,  but  at  the 
same  time  He  was  in  heaven.  He  walked  the  hard 
and  rocky  ways  of  Palestine ;  the  miseries  of  the  world 
were  all  around  Him ;  the  dying,  the  dead,  the  sufferer, 
and  the  sinner  met  Him  at  every  turn,  —  but  the  Son 
of  man  was  in  heaven.  Heaven  spreads  over  and 
around  the  earth,  like  a  second  atmosphere  mixed  in 
the  common  air,  and  heavenly  souls  like  His  breathe 
it,  hear  its  vibrations,  and  are  not  out  of  heaven  be- 
cause they  are  in  the  world. 

The  power,  the  wisdom,  the  holiness  and  love  which 
are  exhibited  in  the  life  and  happiness  and  beauty  of 
the  soul  of  the  saint  or  angel  are  one  and  the  same 
with  those  qualities  as  they  are  exhibited  in  the  life 
and  beauty  of  the  flower  of  the  held.  It  is  not  one  God 
who  made  man's  soul,  and  another  who  made  the  flower. 
Is  the  life  of  the  saint  a  glorious  blossoming-out  of  life, 
of  power,  of  love,  and  spiritual  beauty  ?  All  that  is  of 
God.  He  gave  the  soul  its  life  and  purity  and  worth. 
Even  so  the  flower  is  of  God.  He  that  made  the  soul 
made  the  flower  also,  and  both  are  children  of  God, 
though  differing  from  each  other,  as  children  should. 


14  GOD   IN  NATURE  AND   LIFE. 

This  great  truth,  that  the  universe  is  all  one,  that  all 
it  reveals  is  the  revelation  of  one  mind,  one  will,  and 
that  all  parts  of  it  are  filled  with  the  same  meaning, 
teaches  us  many  lessons. 

1,  It  teaches  us  how  to  study  the  highest  truths  that 
God  has  revealed  to  us  in  His  Word.  That  is  to  say,  it 
suggests  that  we  study  these  higher  truths  by  compar- 
ing them  with  lower  forms  of  the  same  truths  in  the 
world.  Jesus  taught  the  spiritual  truths  of  His  gospel 
by  illustrations  and  comparisons  drawn  from  the  natural 
world ;  and  this  He  did  because  He  saw  that  all  truth 
was  one.  We  may  believe  a  thing  just  because  it  is 
told  us,  when  we  can  see  no  other  reason  for  it  than 
because  some  authority  requires  us  to  believe  it.  But 
when  we  see  that  it  is  natural,  that  it  is  supported  by 
all  natural  truth,  that  it  is  one  with  the  trutli  of  Nature, 
then  with  how  much  greater  satisfaction  do  we  accept 
it,  and  how  much  more  hearty  is  the  obedience  that  we 
yield  to  it !  If  the  Lord  our  God  is  one  Lord,  then  the 
whole  universe  must  be  one,  agreeing,  not  contradictory, 
in  all  its  parts.  And  when  we  see  that  a  doctrine 
agrees  with  wliat  God  has  revealed  in  Nature,  we  doubt 
it  no  longer ;  it  has  become  forever  true  and  real  to  us. 
This  is  what  the  world  is  good  for,  and  what  it  was 
meant  for,  —  to  be  an  illustration  of  the  high  and  spirit- 
ual truths  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus.  If  the  teachings  of 
the  Bible  are  true,  they  will  find  confirmation  in  the 
truths  of  Nature  somewhere.  One  hindrance  to  the 
growth  of  our  souls  in  knowledge  of  God  is  this,  that 
we  study  the  Bible  as  if  it  were  something  by  itself, 
having  no  connection  with  natural  truth  ;  as  if  it  .should 
be  understood  by  arbitrary  logical  interpretation,  and 


GOD  THE   ONE  LORD.  15 

not  as  if  it  ought  to  be  compared  with  common  truth 
and  common  experience.  Nature,  or  the  universe,  is 
the  introduction  to  revelation.  It  is  like  the  first  chap- 
ters of  a  work  on  geometry,  where  the  signs  are  ex- 
plained, and  the  axioms  on  which  depends  the  truth 
of  all  that  follows  are  given  in  distinct  form.  He  who 
should  study  geometry  without  studying  the  introduc- 
tion with  the  signs  and  axioms,  would  only  give  a 
meaning  of  his  own  to  the  terms  of  his  problems,  and 
be  ever  studying  and  never  able  to  come  to  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  truth,  —  even  like  many  who  study  God's 
Word  without  remembering  that  if  it  is  true  it  is  natu- 
ral, and  will  iind  its  illustration  in  what  God  has 
revealed  in  Nature. 

Thus  the  incarnation  of  God  in  our  humanity  is  the 
supreme  truth  of  revelation.  To  some  it  appears  the 
most  unnatural  and  improbable  of  doctrines.  But 
when  we  realize  that  the  universe  is  all  one  in  God, 
that  the  lowest  and  the  highest  are  equally  related  to 
Him,  that  He  inhabits  aU,  then  there  is  everything 
natural  in  the  fact  that  He  who  made  and  animates  all 
things  makes  His  appearance  among  His  works  in  the 
person  of  that  creature  who  stood  next  to  Him,  because 
created  in  His  image.  It  comforts  us  and  helps  our 
faith  to  see  that  the  incarnation  is  in  harmony  with 
God's  natural  relation  to  men.  It  helps  our  faith  no 
less  to  see  that  the  substitution  of  Christ,  the  putting 
Him  in  the  sinner's  place  and  making  Him  to  bear  our 
sins,  is  natural,  —  that  this  great  act  proceeds  on  prin- 
ciples which  are  revealed  in  Nature  and  constantly 
exemplified  in  common  life.  And  so  it  may  be  seen 
by  this  method  of  studying  God's  Word  that  there  is 


16  GOD  IN  NATURE   AND  LIFE. 

no  contradiction  of  the  great  truths  of  revelation  in 
any  facts  or  principles  of  the  universe.  All  is  one, 
hound  in  harmony  by  the  same  principles,  from  the 
crystal  in  its  rocky  matrix  to  the  saint  washed  in  the 
blood  of  his  Redeemer.  If  the  revelation  of  the  Bible 
explains  Nature  truly,  so,  in  turn,  does  Nature  explain 
revelation.  Every  part  of  Nature  will  support  whatever 
is  true,  because  the  whole  is  one.  When  you  study 
any  truth  of  revelation  in  the  Word  of  God,  see  if  you 
cannot  make  it  natural,  as  well  as  supernatural.  See 
if  you  cannot  find  the  principle  of  it  in  Nature ;  and  if 
you  can,  you  will  be  able  to  trust  it  with  a  new  degree 
of  conviction  and  satisfaction.  Yet,  to  be  sure,  if  we 
cannot  make  our  truth  seem  natural  and  in  harmony 
with  Nature,  to  reject  it  therefore  at  once  would  be 
to  assume  that  our  knowledge  is  perfect,  and  that  we 
know  everything  that  is  natural,  which  would  be  to 
make  fools  of  ourselves  in  assuming  to  be  wise.  The 
testimony  of  Scripture  to  any  truth  stands  good  and 
authoritative  against  the  ignorance  of  man.  Nor  can 
any  truth  of  Scripture  be  reasonably  rejected  because 
to  us  it  seems  impossible  to  make  it  harmonize  with 
natural  truth ;  for  we  are  bound  to  think  that  our  igno- 
rance is  the  reason  of  our  difficulty,  since  we  know  so 
infinitely  less  than  we  are  ignorant  of. 

2.  The  great  fact  that  the  Lord  our  God  is  one  Lord, 
and  that  all  the  universe  is  one,  a  unity  in  Him,  teaches 
us  that  there  can  be  no  department  or  province  of 
Nature  or  of  life  in  which  we  do  not  have  to  do  with 
God.  If  one  place  is  sacred,  for  the  same  reason  every 
place  is  sacred.  If  one  employment  is  religious  because 
it  has  reference  or  relation  to  God,  for  the  same  reason 


GOD   THE   ONE  LORD.  17 

all   employments   are   religious.      Whatsoever   we   do, 
whetlier  we  eat  or  drink,  every  such  common  action 
is  as  much  in  His  sight,  and  as  truly  related  to  Him, 
as  are  the  acts  of  angels  in  heaven.     The  universe  is 
one,  because  every  part  of  it  was  made  by  God  and  is 
filled  witli  His  presence.   There  are  no  places,  no  employ- 
ments, of  which  we  can  say,  "  There  is  no  God  here,  in 
this  place  there  is  nothing  to  do  with  God."     It  is  too 
common  a  thought  with  us,  however,  that  God  has  only 
a  special  and  limited  department  in  life  and  Nature. 
There  are  a  few  things  that  relate  to  God,  a  few  things 
with  which  He  is  connected,  a  few  times  and  places  in 
which  we  have  to  do  with  Him ;  but  there  are  more  in 
which  there  is  no  connection  of  God  with  our  circum- 
stances.    This  very  false  thought  arises  from  the  fact 
that  we  have  made  a  distance  of  that  which  is  only  a 
difference  between  God  and  us,  —  as  if  because  He  was 
so  different  from  us  and  the  world,  He  must  therefore 
be  as  far  from  it  as  He  is  different  from  it.     Few  men 
think  of  farming  as   having   any  divine    or  religious 
character,  or  as   being  in  any  manner  a  dealing  with 
God.     Yet  how  far  must  a  man  go  from  the  work  of 
farming  before  he  comes  to  the  agency,  the  power,  the 
blessing  of  God  ?     Who  does  the  larger  part  in  produ- 
cing tlie  harvest  that  is  gathered  ?     If  tlie  earth  is  the 
Lord's,  how  much  more  does  the  farmer  use  of  his  own 
than  of  that  which  belongs  to  God  ?    It  is  very  instruc- 
tive to  observe  in  what  the  earliest  known  reliffions  of 
man  consisted.     Apart  from  the  endless  ceremonials  for 
cleansing  from  such  defilement  as  might  communicate 
disease  or  death,  their  sacred  and  religious  actions  were 
the  ploughing  of  the  land,  tlie  sowing  of  the  seed,  the 

2 


18  GOD   IN   NATURE   AND   LIFE. 

gathering  of  the  harvest,  the  building  of  a  house,  the 
planting  of  a  tree,  the  opening  of  a  well.  It  was  with 
these  actions  that  their  solemn  religious  services  were 
connected.  It  was  on  these  occasions  that  they  made 
their  prayers;  and  not,  apparently,  in  childish  selfish- 
ness, as  if  they  knew  or  desired  no  higher  good,  but  as 
understanding  that  all  earthly  blessings  were  true  gifts 
of  God,  and  must  be  acknowledged  with  humility  and 
gratitude  to  Him.  As  they  labor  in  vain  that  build  a 
house,  unless  the  Lord  build  it  also,  so  in  vain  do  they 
labor  who  till  the  ground,  unless  He  "maketh  it  soft 
with  showers,  and  blesseth  the  springing  thereof." 

The  one  Lord  who  rules  all  things,  rules  equally  in 
the  fortunes  of  the  business  of  men  as  in  the  courses 
of  the  stars.  You  cannot  do  the  business  of  this  world 
without  Him.  As  in  the  tilling  of  the  earth,  so  in  the 
transactions  of  business,  His  providence  must  do  in- 
finitely more  for  you  than  you  can  do  for  yourself,  or 
it  is  not  possible  for  you  to  succeed.  And  even  in  this 
realm,  wliere  men  so  rarely  perceive  that  He  is  present, 
it  is  wholly  false  and  unnatural  for  us  to  assume  that 
God  fills  only  a  little  place,  a  limited  sphere  in  our 
life  and  work,  and  leaves  all  the  rest  to  the  control  of 
something  else.  This  breaks  the  unity  of  the  universe, 
denies  the  unity  of  God,  and  practically  declares  that 
there  are  other  lords  than  He,  other  laws  in  the  world 
than  His. 

3.  Again,  the  great  fact  that  all  the  universe  is  one, 
all  in  one  relation  to  God,  all  pervaded  by  His  wisdom 
and  goodness  and  presence,  teaches  us  that  there  is  a 
moral  significance,  a  lesson  of  God,  in  all  things.  A 
merely  scientific  knowledge  of  the  world,  a  mere  knowl- 


GOD   THE   ONE  LORD.  19 

edge  of  its  chemical  elements,  its  orders,  classes,  and 
species,  is  an  utterly  inadequate  knowledge.  As  well 
might  one  pretend  to  have  described  a  man  when  he 
has  described  liis  skeleton,  his  members,  and  the 
chemical  elements  of  which  he  is  composed.  Above 
all  these  is  a  living  soul,  and  a  moral  and  immortal 
life.  So  in  the  worhl  there  is  a  living  God,  a  divine 
and  moral  meaning ;  and  if  we  see  not  this  we  do  not 
see  the  world.  The  blue  deeps  above  us,  with  the 
countless  stars  by  night  and  the  fleecy  clouds  by  day, 
are  not  just  air  and  moisture,  just  height  and  breadth. 
There  is  something  more,  a  something  that  speaks  to 
the  inmost  heart.  There  is  the  infinite  peace  of  God 
brooding  on  the  world,  the  repose  of  an  infinite  power 
while  it  watches  the  countless  flocks  of  which  it  is  the 
shepherd.  The  earth  around  us,  in  its  variety  of  crea- 
ture and  life,  is  not  merely  a  varied  form  of  matter ;  it 
has  a  meaning;  it  is  a  revelation;  the  character  of  God 
is  spread  over  it,  and  the  thoughts  of  God  are  revealed 
in  it. 

In  this  season,  whose  sweet  influence  we  all  feel,  we 
ought  especially  to  recognize  the  lessons  that  are  taught 
us.  Most  especially  ought  we  to  see  in  all  the  beauty 
of  life  and  growth  about  us  the  tokens  of  that  infinite 
goodness  and  loving  character  of  God  whicli  they  re- 
veal. The  Scriptures  say  that  "  God  is  love ; "  and  they 
say  also,  "  The  earth  is  full  of  the  goodness  of  the  Lord." 
We  can  well  believe  this  when  we  see  all  things  around 
us  filled  with  life  and  joy,  and  overlaid  witli  beauty. 
Who  but  a  loving  God  would  care  whether  His  world 
was  beautiful  or  not  ?  Who  but  a  loving  God  would 
care  for  pretty  colors  in  insects,  for  grace  and  beauty 


20  GOD   IN   NATURE   AND   LIFE. 

in  plants  and  flowers  ?  How  gentle  nnist  the  nature 
of  God  be,  how  tender  and  loving,  to  delight  in  the 
kappiness  of  birds !  How  the  great  Life  overflows  in 
beauty,  in  music,  in  grace,  in  happiness !  There  is 
always  a  soft  murmur  of  harmony  in  the  world,  as  if 
some  great  peaceful  heart  were  humming  its  happy 
content  to  a  sleeping  child.  Oh,  God  is  good !  God 
is  love !  Each  blossom  and  bird,  as  well  as  the  wide, 
universal  scene  of  life  and  beauty,  is  witness  of  it.  If 
He  were  a  cold-hearted,  unloving  God,  he  could  never 
have  made  such  a  world  as  this,  so  crowded  with  happy 
life,  and  so  glowing  with  loveliness.  "What  a  lesson  it 
is  of  His  loving  nature  and  disposition ;  what  a  lesson 
against  the  cold,  unloving  selfishness  of  men !  Alas  ! 
how  many  can  see  no  beauty,  feel  no  delight,  in  any- 
thing but  the  yellow  glitter  of  gold,  and  trample  on 
all  that  is  tender  and  gentle  in  themselves,  in  wife 
and  children,  because  there  is  no  money  to  be  made  in 
givinfj  life  to  such  affections  !  How  unlike  God  is  the 
soul  that  is  unloving,  selfish,  and  cold  !  How  little  any 
man  knows  of  God  who  has  studied  Him  only  in  logical 
dogmas  and  intellectual  systems,  and  has  never  studied 
His  glory  and  His  goodness  as  He  has  shown  them  in 
the  vast  universe  of  life  and  beauty  around  him  !  As 
in  all  that  man  does  he  shows  what  he  is,  so  God,  in 
making  the  world  as  He  has,  so  full  of  life  and  joy  and 
beauty,  has  shown  us  what  He  is.  And  as  in  looking 
on  the  stones  of  the  Pyramids,  or  the  sculptured  mar- 
bles of  the  ruins  of  Eome  and  Athens  and  Baalbec,  he 
is  blind  who  does  not  see  a  higher  meaning  in  these 
than  in  common  stones,  so  he  is  blind  who  looks  on 
all  the  life  and  beauty  of  the  world  and  does  not  see  a 


GOD  THE   ONE  LOUD.  21 

divine  meaning,  a  lesson  of  God,  in  it  all.  The  man 
who  can  feel  God  only  in  his  conscience,  only  in 
the  sense  of  duty  and  of  sin,  has  only  begun  to  live ; 
as  yet  his  eyes  are  not  open.  When  we  are  farther 
advanced  in  the  spiritual  life,  every  Lush  will  burn 
with  the  glory  of  God,  from  every  mountain  we  shall 
hear  the  voice  of  God,  and  every  day  will  be  a  Sabbath 
of  holy  peace,  and  all  things  will  be  of  God. 

4.  But  the  great  fact  that  the  Lord  our  God  is  one 
Lord,  that  all  the  universe  is  one,  with  no  lordship  but 
His,  no  life  but  His,  teaches  us  how  to  think  of  God. 
And  our  thought  of  God  is  the  king-thought  of  life; 
it  makes  our  character,  it  moulds  our  life,  it  governs 
all  When  we  have  thought  of  God  as  Creator  and 
Sovereign,  and  have  adored  Him  as  such,  —  when  we 
have  thought  of  Him  as  incarnate  in  Christ,  coming  to 
seek  and  save  us,  showing  us  His  infinite  grace  in  this 
most  wondrous  fact,  —  when  we  have  seen  Him  thus, 
and  have  cast  our  souls  upon  His  mercy,  then  let  us 
think  of  God  as  familiarly  present  in  all  the  world. 
Let  us  think  of  Him  as  that  Presence  which  fills  all 
things  and  all  places,  and  makes  them  full.  As  the 
elements  wrap  us  round  and  touch  us  continually,  so 
we  are  embosomed  in  God,  —  as  the  clouds  are  in  the 
air,  as  the  islands  are  in  the  sea.  He  is  the  most 
familiar  presence  in  the  world.  There  is  more  of  God 
in  the  world  than  there  is  of  the  world  itself.  He 
encompasseth  our  path;  so  we  walk  with  Him,  and 
He  is  not  far  from  us.  With  such  thoughts  of  God, 
if  we  love  and  serve  Him,  His  presence,  His  power, 
and  His  love  become  a  great  sympathy  with  us,  a 
sweet  and  holy  society  for  us  ;  and  our  religion  becomes 


22  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

not  a  worship  only,  nor  a  fear  only,  nor  a  hope  only, 
but  a  walking  with  God,  an  entering  into  rest,  an 
earnest  and  anticipation  of  the  pure  and  perfect  life 
of  heaven.  The  universe  is  one ;  it  is  all  heaven  to 
the  soul  that  is  one  with  God.  The  Lord  our  God  is 
one ;  the  Person  whose  presence  is  in  Nature  is  the 
same  God  whom  we  shall  see  in  heaven.  The  world 
is  as  sacred  as  a  church,  for  it  is  God's  temple,  hlled 
with  His  glory.  Life  is  as  sacred  as  a  prayer,  for  it  is 
all  lived  in  His  immediate  presence.  It  is  as  wicked 
to  commit  a  sin  on  earth  as  it  would  be  to  commit  the 
same  sin  in  heaven,  for  it  is  done  before  the  face  of 
God.  If  we  seek  Him,  He  will  be  found  of  us,  for 
He  is  a  God  at  hand,  and  not  afar  off. 


MEETING  WITH  GOD.  23 


MEETING  WITH    GOD. 

/  Jiave  heard  of  thee  hy  the  hearing  of  the  ear  ;  but  now 
mine  eye  seeth  thee:  wherefore  I  abhor  myself  and  repent  in 
dust  and  ashes.  —  Job.  xlii.  5,  6. 

THE  inference  that  may  be  drawn  from  these  words 
is,  that  God  does  sometimes  appear  to  men.  It  is 
not  an  impossibility  that  men  should  meet  and  recognize 
the  personal  presence  of  God,  in  the  same  real  sense 
in  which  they  meet  and  feel  one  another's  presence. 
It  takes  but  few  words  to  make  this  assertion,  but  no 
words  can  express  the  interest  and  greatness  of  the  fact 
itself.  If  it  is  true  that  God  Himself  does  sometimes 
appear  to  men,  what  other  fact  is  there,  or  can  there 
be,  to  men  so  great  as  this?  No  other  fact  can  so 
largely  affect  our  views  of  the  existence  of  God  and 
His  relations  to  us,  and  no  other  fact  can  so  affect  the 
view  that  we  must  take  of  ourselves.  If  such  is  the 
condition  of  things  in  the  universe  that  the  soul  of 
man  and  God,  the  infinite  Author  of  all,  can  meet 
personally,  and  come  into  eacli  other's  conscious  pres- 
ence, how  wonderful  is  this  fact !  And  if  it  should  be 
that  you  and  I  and  all  human  souls  are  destined  at 
some  time  to  encounter  Him  as  men  meet  one  another, 
what  else  can  we  look  forward  to  with  equal  interest  ? 


24  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

What  other  event  in  all  the  future  can  there  be  like 
this  ? 

The  question  is,  whether  we  are  shut  up  to  the 
necessity  of  knowing  all  that  we  are  to  know  of  God 
by  what  is  declared  to  us  about  Him,  by  the  exhibi- 
tions of  His  attributes  in  His  works,  or  whether, 
beyond  all  these,  He  ever  shows  Himself,  and  permits 
men  to  know  His  existence  by  encountering  His  Person. 
We  know  it  is  often  repeated,  "  No  man  can  see  God," 
"  No  man  hath  seen  God  at  any  time."  When  Moses 
prayed  to  be  permitted  to  see  His  glory,  he  was  told, 
"No  man  can  see  my  face  and  live."  But  all  these 
passages  do  only  assert  that  He  cannot  be  seen  by 
men  as  Nature  is  seen,  tliat  He  does  not  show  Himself 
visibly  to  our  senses.  And  this  is  naturally  to  be 
inferred  from  the  spirituality  of  His  substance.  But 
it  is  not  necessary  that  He  should  put  on  form,  and 
visible,  material  body,  in  order  to  our  meeting  Him, 
and  knowing  that  we  have  met  Him.  Without  this 
He  can  make  His  presence  known  to  us,  and  make  a 
meeting  of  our  souls  with  Him.  The  blind  can  truly 
meet  one  another  without  the  aid  of  sight.  If  you 
truly  meet  your  friend,  it  is  not  because  you  and  he 
see  each  other,  but  because  you  make  yourself  con- 
scious of  his  presence  at  the  same  time  that  he  makes 
himself  conscious  of  your  presence;  and  the  two  do 
not  meet  until  you  know  that  he  is  conscious  of  you, 
and  he  knows  that  you  are  conscious  of  him.  It  is 
not  in  the  seeing,  but  in  the  consciousness  of  each 
other,  that  the  meeting  takes  place  and  has  its  effect 
upon  you  both.  To  this  meeting  the  sight  of  each 
other's  forms  is  not  essential;  there  are  other  means 


MEETING  WITH  GOD.  25 

by  which  it  can  be  effected.  Neither  is  it  necessary 
that  we  should  see  God  materially,  in  order  to  encounter 
Hiin,  feeling  His  presence  and  knowing  that  He  feels 
ours.  If,  through  all  eternity,  neither  you  nor  I  should 
ever  see  God,  yet  we  may  truly  meet  Him  every  day 
in  all  those  ages. 

We  may  feel  that  this  is  unsatisfactory.  Perhaps 
we  cannot  help  wishing  that  if  we  must  meet  Him,  we 
could  also  see  Him.  But  this  feeling  arises  only  from 
the  feeble  consciousness  we  now  have  of  His  presence. 
When  that  consciousness  grows  clearer,  stronger,  more 
intense,  we  shall  not  wish  for  any  other  sight  of  God. 
Man  instinctively  closes  his  eyes  to  see  God,  when  he 
worships,  when  he  prays,  naturally  feeling  that  it  is  by 
making  himself  spiritually  conscious  of  God  that  he  is 
to  meet  Him.  Yet  this  is  the  true  meeting,  the  real 
encounter.  For  me  to  know  that  I  am  in  the  presence 
of  God,  and  know  that  He  is  conscious  of  me,  and 
know  that  He  knows  I  am  conscious  of  Him,  —  this 
is  for  me  to  see  God :  nay,  it  is  far  more,  it  is  to  meet 
Him,  in  tlie  most  perfect  sense.  Why  cannot  you 
and  your  friend  look  each  other  in  the  eye  more  than 
an  instant  at  a  time,  while  you  can  stand  side  by  side 
and  talk  all  day  ?  To  meet  by  mere  bodily  presence 
and  by  formal  intercourse  is  easy  and  endurable ;  but 
to  meet  directly,  by  mingling  your  consciousnesses  with 
each  other,  is  meeting  too  closely, —  it  cannot  be  borne, 
except  by  the  intensity  of  love  or  the  intensity  of  hate. 
If  we  cannot  meet  God  by  seeing  Him,  still  we  may 
meet  Him  far  more  directly  and  closely  by  spiritual 
consciousness.  We  may  come  to  some  moment  when 
our  step  is  arrested,  our  soul  aroused,  by  the  conscious- 


26  GOD  IN  NATURE   AND  LIFE. 

ness  that  we  have  come  into  His  presence;  and  though 
we  see  no  form,  we  feel  and  know  that  He  is  there,  the 
dread  and  solemn  presence  of  the  Author  of  our  life 
and  spirit.  We  know  that  our  inmost  soul  is  naked 
before  Him,  since  He  takes  us  into  His  consciousness. 
We  feel  His  presence,  we  have  met  Him  at  last.  What 
He  is  to  us  we  shall  now  feel,  instantly  and  thoroughly, 
and  what  we  are  to  Him  will  he  equally  clear.  And 
even  if  it  be  necessary  that  there  should  be  some  visible 
sign  or  token  of  His  presence,  something  that  the  senses 
can  apprehend,  He  cannot  want  for  means  of  this  kind, 
to  make  Himself  manifest  to  us.  If  a  burning  bush 
or  a  cloud  of  fire  is  needed  to  declare  His  presence, 
He  can  use  these  means  of  making  us  feel  that  we  are 
before  Him.  We  never  see  each  other's  souls,  and  yet 
our  souls  thoroughly  meet :  when  we  look  into  one 
another's  eyes  we  know  that  we  are  conscious  of  one 
another  at  the  same  moment.  Thus  directly  may  our 
souls  meet  God ;  not  as  men  meet  when  they  hide 
themselves  behind  their  own  words,  and  encounter 
each  other  only  at  a  great  spiritual  distance,  but  as 
men's  souls  meet  when  they  lift  the  curtain  and  look 
directly  into  one  another's  consciousness. 

It  is  indeed  saying  a  great  deal  to  assert  that  the 
spirit  of  man  may  thus  meet  God  in  personal  encounter, 
and  to  assert  it  as  a  true  and  literal  fact,  not  to  be  ex- 
plained away  into  something  else.  Yet,  much  as  it  is 
to  say,  if  there  is  one  single  instance  in  which  it  ever 
happened,  we  are  authorized  to  say  it,  and  to  set  it 
down  as  one  of  the  established  truths  of  human  life. 

There  have  been  many  instances  in  whicli  it  is  said 
that  God  met  men  and  was  with  them,  so  that  His 


MEETING  WITH   GOD.  27 

presence  was  a  real  fact  of  their  life,  but  in  whicli  it 
does  not  appear  that  they  were  fully  conscious  of  His 
presence,  or  that  they  met  Him.  Jacob  said,  when  he 
rose  from  his  stone  pillow  at  Bethel,  "  Surely  God  is  in 
this  place,  and  I  knew  it  not."  He  had  been  in  God's 
presence,  but  had  not  met  Him,  —  or  had  met  Him  only 
in  this  unconscious  manner.  Such  meetings  of  God 
with  men  are  frequently  described  in  the  Bible.  A 
similar  presence  of  God  with  us  all,  indeed,  is  taught 
in  His  Word.  But  in  these  instances  the  veil  is  not 
removed.  Man  does  not  perceive  and  feel  God's  pres- 
ence as  God  perceives  and  feels  man's  presence.  Man 
does  not  see  as  he  is  seen,  and  know  as  he  is  known. 
The  mother  stands  over  her  child  while  he  is  busy  in 
thought  and  hand  with  his  toys  upon  the  floor.  She  is 
deeply  conscious  of  her  child;  he  fills  her  whole  con- 
sciousness. She  pours  out  upon  her  little  one  a  flood 
of  tender,  gentle,  loving  consciousness.  She  sees  his 
thoughts,  she  feels  his  emotions,  he  lives  in  her,  but 
they  have  not  met.  The  great  fact  of  his  mother's 
presence,  and  her  full  consciousness  of  him,  he  does  not 
perceive  and  does  not  feel.  But  he  looks  up,  their 
eyes  meet,  their  souls  mingle,  he  feels  the  sweetness 
of  that  conscious  love  which  she  is  pouring  out  upon 
him,  he  springs  toward  its  source  in  her  soul,  —  and 
they  have  met.  And  when  we  read  the  incident  re- 
corded in  the  third  chapter  of  Exodus,  when  Moses  is 
said  to  have  met  God  at  the  burning  bush,  we  are  evi- 
dently reading  of  an  equally  real  interview  between 
God  and  man.  True,  after  the  man  was  addressed,  and 
was  made  conscious  that  it  was  God  who  spoke  to  him, 
he  veiled  his  eyes,  and  dared  not  look  on  God ;  yet  he 


28  GOD   IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

was  thoroughly  conscious  of  God's  presence,  and  did 
truly  meet  Him.  There  was  still  a  distance  preserved, 
but  he  came  as  near  to  God  as  he  could  come  and  live. 
It  is  a  true  instance  of  a  real  meeting  of  God  and  man. 
Though  it  is  not  so  perfect  and  open  and  full  an  en- 
counter as  we  are  taught  to  expect  hereafter,  still  it  is 
a  sufficient  proof  that  God  can  and  does  appear  to  man. 
That  He  has  done  so  even  once  is  a  powerful  confirma- 
tion of  the  prospect  that  every  one  of  us  will  at  some 
time  meet  Him  in  direct  and  personal  meeting. 

The  Holy  Scriptures  always  describe  the  departing 
spirit  as  returning  to  God,  and  death  as  a  going  into 
His  presence.  Our  bodies  and  the  material  world  are 
between  our  souls  and  the  spiritual  world.  When  we 
go  out  of  our  bodies  and  out  of  this  world,  where  shall 
we  be  ?  We  must  be  in  the  spiritual  world,  without 
anything  between  us  and  it.  And  if  God  is  in  that 
spiritual  world,  how  shall  we  not  meet  Him  when  we 
go  in  there  ?  He  is  behind  the  world's  laws  and  forms, 
and  when  we  go  out  beyond  the  limits  of  our  bodies 
and  of  material  nature,  what  will  there  be  to  conceal 
Him  from  us  ?  The  body  returns  to  the  dust  from 
whence  it  was  taken,  and  the  soul  returns  to  God  who 
gave  it. 

It  is  the  constant  doctrine  of  Scripture  that  there  is 
for  us  each  in  that  future  world  a  day  of  judgment.  "  It 
is  appointed  unto  men  once  to  die,  but  after  this  the 
judgment ;  "  "  because  God  hath  appointed  a  day  in  which 
He  will  judge  the  world  in  righteousness,  by  that  JSIan 
whom  He  hath  ordained,  whereof  He  hath  given  assur- 
ance to  all  men,  in  that  He  hath  raised  Him  from  the 
dead."    "  Then  shall  He  sit  upon  the  throne  of  His  glory, 


MEETING  WITH  GOD.  29 

and  before  Him  shall  be  gathered  all  nations."  Tlie  one 
great  truth  that  is  asserted  in  all  that  relates  to  the 
future  judgment  is,  tliat  we  shall  all  meet  God.  We 
have  heard  of  Him  by  the  hearing  of  the  ear,  but  tlien 
our  eyes  shall  see  Him.  It  will  be  a  true  and  personal 
meeting,  for  every  one  of  us  must  give  account  of  him- 
self unto  God.  All  else  that  is  described  is  but  the 
scenery  of  that  meeting,  the  great  fact  is  tlie  meeting 
itself.  He  will  be  no  longer  a  God  tliat  hideth  Himself, 
no  longer  at  a  distance,  no  longer  avoiding  our  personal 
recognition.  "  Behold,  He  cometh.  He  cometh,  and 
every  eye  shall  see  Him."  This  language,  you  will  say, 
refers  to  Christ;  and  so  it  does.  As  Christ  is  the  mani- 
festation of  God's  character  to  this  world,  so  He  will  be 
the  manifestation  of  God's  Person  to  that  world.  While 
He  was  here,  what  was  visible  in  Him  to  this  world  was 
the  human,  the  man's  nature,  the  face  marred  and  wet 
with  tears  for  our  sins.  What  will  be  visible  in  that 
■world  will  be  the  divine,  the  God's  nature,  the  bright- 
ness of  His  glory,  the  express  image  of  His  person. 
From  the  beginning,  before  all  worlds,  and  in  the  crea- 
tion of  all  worlds.  He  was  God  as  manifested,  God  as 
known  and  revealed ;  and  He  will  be  the  manifested 
God  in  all  eternity.  God  is  in  Him,  and  He  is  God. 
With  Him  we  have  to  do.  Christ  will  not  be  between 
God  and  us ;  He  will  be  God.  We  look  into  a  man's 
eye,  and  see  a  spirit;  we  shall  look  into  His  eye,  and  see 
God.  And  when  we  encounter  spiritually  the  presence 
of  God,  who  will  that  be,  whom  we  have  thus  met? 
Who  but  the  same  One  whom  we  saw  when  we  looked 
into  the  eye  of  Christ?  Who  but  the  same  who  in  Christ 
makes  Himself  understood  by  men  ? 


30  GOD  IN   NATURE   AND   LIFE. 

If  the  Scripture  be  true,  we  shall  meet  God,  —  He 
will  appear  to  us.  After  all  the  reports  that  have  been 
made  to  us  of  His  existence  and  character,  M'hich  we 
have  heard  by  the  hearing  of  the  ear  in  tlie  voices  of 
Nature  and  the  proclamations  of  the  Bible,  we  shall  see 
Him.  And  does  it  seem  to  us  that  there  is  no  natural 
probability  to  support  these  teachings  of  the  Bible  ? 
Even  if  there  were  none,  how  is  it  possible  to  deny  that 
what  the  Scriptures  predict  will  happen  in  the  future  ? 
We  cannot  confidently  say  that  it  will  not  occur,  be- 
cause we  have  no  other  means  of  knowing  wliat  will  be, 
nor  have  we  any  means  of  destroying  the  authority  of 
prophecy,  except  by  voluntarily  refusing  to  believe  it. 
We  must  at  least  wait  until  the  event  disproves  the 
prediction,  before  we  can  assert  that  it  is  false.  But 
there  are  natural  probabilities  that  support  the  declara- 
tion of  the  Scriptures  that  we  all  shall  meet  with  God. 
They  are  many  and  strong ;  so  many  and  so  strong  that 
we  must  not  neglect  the  truth  which  they  commend 
to  us. 

The  fact  that  there  is  a  God,  that  He  exists  and  we 
exist,  establishes  a  strong  probability  that  we  shall 
sooner  or  later  meet  Him.  We  are  continually  ex- 
tending the  boundaries  of  our  acquaintance  with  the 
universe,  continually  coming  into  contact  with  new 
objects.  Our  lives  carry  us  forward,  and  tlie  evident 
destiny  of  man  is  thus  to  go  on  forever  during  Ids 
whole  existence,  meeting  new  objects  and  extending 
his  acquaintance.  The  very  fact  that  there  is  a  God 
in  the  universe  makes  it  very  probable  that  we  shall 
at  some  time  meet  Him.  All  things  in  tlie  universe 
are  so  connected,  so  bound  together  by  the  same  laws. 


MEETING  WITH   GOD.  31 

SO  pervaded  by  the  same  forces,  —  the  great  whole  is 
so  complete  a  unity  at  last,  —  that  if  we  continue  to 
exist,  all  the  probabilities  are  that  sooner  or  later  we 
shall  be  brought  into  contact  with  everything  else  in 
the  universe.  There  is  no  real  separation  even  between 
worlds.  Tliey  shine  and  sing  to  each  other  across  the 
spaces,  and  move  within  magnetic  reach,  and  are  ap- 
parently anxious  to  show  themselves  to  the  spirit  of 
man.  And  if  God  is  in  His  universe,  why  should  we 
not  encounter  Him  ?  If  He  is  a  spirit,  and  can  never 
be  met  in  a  material  way,  we  also  are  spirits,  and  can 
enter  the  spiritual  world  as  well  as  the  natural.  This 
fact  that  we  are  spirits,  and  can  enter  the  spiritual 
world,  adds  greatly  to  the  natural  probability  that  we 
shall  some  time  see  God  and  meet  Him.  The  world 
of  spiritual  existences  is  as  truly  natural  to  us  as  the 
world  of  Nature,  and  its  realities  are  for  us  natural 
objects  of  desire  and  knowledge.  If  God  is  in  the 
spiritual  world,  we  too  shall  be  there  before  long,  and 
why  shall  we  not  meet  Him  there  ?  How  can  we  be 
forever  meeting  the  smaller  facts  in  the  universe,  and 
never  meet  in  plain  contact  tlie  greatest  fact  of  all, 
even  God  Himself? 

Every  natural  connection  of  our  life  with  God  in- 
creases this  probability.  He  is  our  Creator,  Author  of 
our  being.  It  is  said  in  Scripture,  "He  that  formed  the 
eye,  shall  He  not  see  ? "  And  we  may  ask  again.  The 
eye  that  He  formed,  shall  it  never  see  Him  ?  "  He 
that  formed  the  ear,  shall  He  not  hear  ? "  The  ear 
wliich  He  formed  to  hear,  shall  it  never  hear  Him  who 
formed  it  ?  He  is  the  Father  of  our  spirits ;  and  shall 
the  spirit  never  meet  its  Father  ?     He  is  our  Creator, 


32  GOD  IN  NATURE   AND  LIFE. 

and  has  created  us  with  powers  adapted  to  know  that 
He  is  our  Creator :  in  this  fact,  surely,  we  must  trace 
strong  probability  that  we  shall  some  time  see  Him. 
If  He  had  meant  that  we  should  never  meet  Him, 
would  He  not  have  concealed  from  us  the  fact  that  He 
is  our  Creator,  as  He  has  concealed  it  from  the  animals  ? 
And  our  natural  dependence  upon  God  is  so  great, 
so  constant,  so  complete,  as  to  form  a  constant  connec- 
tion with   Him  for  us.     It   is   the  simplest   truth  of 
natural   religion   that   God's  power  and  will   are   the 
steady  and  constant  support  of  all  His  creatures.     The 
fact  that  our  connection  with  His  power  and  presence 
is  so  direct  and  constant,  makes  it  most  improbable 
that  we  shall  never  see,  never  meet,  Him  upon  whom 
we  thus  depend.     That  He  should  be  forever  so  near 
to  us,  that  we  should  always  so  live  and  move  in  Him, 
and  yet  that  we  should  never  meet  Him  face  to  face, 
never  consciously  encounter  Him  eye  to  eye,  is  not 
probable,   is   not   believable.     And   when   we   observe 
how  much  He  has  revealed  of   Himself,  how  plainly 
He  put  the  tokens  of  His  power  and  Godhead  in  the 
things  that  are  made,  how  He  set  the  stars  singing  for- 
ever "  The  hand  that  made  us  is  divine,"  how  He  has 
forced   upon  our  reason   the  necessity  of  recognizing 
His  existence,  how  He  made  our  souls  to  cry  out  for 
Him  in  their  extremity,  —  what  do  all   these  things 
mean  ?     They  certainly  cannot  mean  that  He  wishes 
us  never  to  know  Him.     Why  does  He  show  Himself 
to  our  mind  in  Nature,  if  He  does  not  wish  to  show  us 
more  ?     All  these  things  are  in  the  direct  path  to  that 
meeting  and  seeing  of  Hira  which  shall  be  ultimate 
and  complete.     He  intimates  His  presence,  but  does 


MEETING   WITH   GOD.  33 

not  show  Himself;  but  He  cannot  expect  us  to  be 
satisfied  with  this.  Can  you  or  I  be  satisfied  if  we 
know  that  some  one  is  near  us  and  concerned  with  us, 
so  long  as  he  will  not  show  himself,  and  let  us  see  him? 
I  have  seen  men  who  tried  earnestly  to  satisfy  them- 
selves that  they  never  should  see  or  meet  God  person- 
ally, but  had  to  do  only  with  His  revealed  laws ;  and 
the  unsatisfied  and  wretched  condition  of  their  spirits 
served  to  show  how  utterly  unnatural  such  a  conception 
is.  No,  because  we  now  know  in  part,  we  shall  here- 
after know  even  as  we  are  known.  Because  we  now 
see  through  a  glass  darkly,  we  shall  hereafter  see  face 
to  face.  When  by  the  ways  that  He  now  employs 
He  has  made  us  conscious  of  His  existence,  and  be- 
gotten in  us  some  conception  of  His  character  and  our 
relations  to  Him,  He  will  unveil  Himself,  and  we  shall 
meet  Him. 

Let  us  remember,  too,  that  our  moral  responsibility, 
our  sense  of  obligation  beyond  all  that  human  law 
requires  of  us,  is  another  and  still  higher  connection 
with  Him.  Our  souls  are  under  His  laws ;  our  duties 
arise  by  His  appointment ;  our  obligations  are  measured 
by  His  will ;  our  destiny  is  at  His  disposal  By  His 
character  we  judge  our  own;  by  His  will  we  must 
regulate  our  lives.  His  nature  is  the  foundation  of 
moral  truth ;  the  idea  of  Him  controls  all  our  ideas  of 
right  and  wrong,  of  holiness  and  sin.  Shall  the  crimi- 
nal never  meet  his  Judge  ?  Shall  the  soul  never  meet 
Him  whom  it  is  so  necessary  for  it  to  know  ?  How 
can  it  be  that  all  these  moral  relations  between  our 
souls  and  God  will  never  bring  us  into  His  presence  ? 
We   are   personal   beings,  not   mere   parts  of  a   race. 

3 


34  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

Each  of  us  is  a  living  soul.  God  is  a  personal  God,  — 
not  an  element,  not  a  mere  power,  but  a  Person,  He 
aud  we  must  meet,  and  look  into  each  other's  conscious- 
ness, as  we  men  meet  personally  when  our  spirits  mingle 
in  mutual  recognition  through  the  eye. 

These  natural  probabilities  amount  almost  to  cer- 
tainty, and  hardly  need  the  express  assertion  of  God 
Himself  that  we  shall  see  Him.  But  when  to  these 
are  added  the  express  assurance  of  Him  whose  voice 
recalled  the  dead,  whose  command  spread  peace  upon 
the  stormy  sea,  and  of  those  in  whom  the  Spirit  of  God 
spoke  to  the  world,  we  can  doubt  no  more.  As  we  have 
heard  of  Him  by  the  hearing  of  the  ear,  so  shall  our 
eyes  see  Him.  It  is  for  each  of  us  sooner  or  later  to 
meet  God  in  open,  full,  and  perfect  meeting.  This 
sublime  fact  is  set  down  in  the  plan  of  my  life  and  of 
yours ;  so  much  we  know  of  what  will  befall  us  here- 
after. We  must  take  it  into  our  account,  and  give  it 
its  place  in  our  plan  of  living,  and  in  our  anticipations 
of  what  we  are  to  find  in  the  life  beyond. 

We  have  now  to  observe  that  this  meeting  with 
God  cannot  take  place  without  the  full  discovery  of 
our  personal  relations  to  Him.  W^hat  these  are  is  not 
fully  discovered  until  we  do  meet  Him.  What  regard 
He  has  for  us,  what  real  sympathy  there  may  be 
between  Him  and  us,  what  ground  there  is  in  our 
relations  for  a  true  fellowship,  we  cannot  fully  know 
until  we  do  meet  Him.  Whether  He  approves  of  us, 
we  can  only  trust,  until  we  know  by  standing  in  His 
presence.  Whether  He  condemns  us,  and  how  deeply 
He  condemns  us,  we  shall  fully  know  only  when  we 
know  it  from  Himself.      In  this  world  it  is  easy  to 


MEETING  WITH  GOD.  35 

misapprehend  our  relations  to  Him.  It  is  hard  even 
for  the  most  devoted  Christian  to  feel  even  a  com- 
fortable assurance  of  his  true  standing  with  God.  We 
are  perpetually  exaggerating  one  view  or  another  of  His 
character,  and  estimating  our  own  standing  accordingly. 
But  when  we  stand  in  the  light  of  His  eye,  when  we 
can  look  straight  into  His  consciousness,  our  personal 
relations  to  Him  will  be  perfectly  clear.  Thus  in  every 
scriptural  representation  of  the  meeting  of  men  with 
God  we  see  most  prominently  this  discovery  and  adjust- 
ment of  their  relation  to  Him  :  "  Come,  ye  blessed ;  de- 
part from  me,  ye  cursed."  It  is  a  singular  yet  common 
fact  that  we  can  never  directly  meet  witliout  being  com- 
pelled to  adjust  our  mutual  relations.  The  master  mind 
takes  supremacy,  and  the  lesser,  for  the  time,  is  subject. 
We  instinctively  perceive  and  accept  the  degree  of  con- 
fidence and  kindness  with  which  we  are  met.  Nothing 
is  more  distressing  than  to  be  unable  to  perceive  the 
relation  that  we  truly  hold  to  those  whom  we  meet. 
Bring  a  steel  rod  into  the  presence  of  a  compass-needle, 
and  instantly  the  needle  takes  its  place,  assuming  its 
true  relation  to  the  steel.  When  souls,  when  our  souls, 
are  brought  before  the  personal  presence  of  God,  they 
will  at  once  discover  their  true  relation  to  Him,  and 
will  take  it.  Such  meeting  with  God  will  be  the  test 
of  moral  character.  In  the  scriptural  instances  of 
meeting  with  God,  this  is  the  effect :  thus  in  the  text, 
"  I  have  heard  of  Thee  by  the  hearing  of  the  ear, 
but  now  mine  eye  seeth  Thee ;  wherefore  I  abhor 
myself,  and  repent  in  dust  and  ashes."  In  our  o\vn 
experience  we  know  that  any  strong  apprehension  of 
God   brings   up   to   view   our   imperfections   and    our 


36  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

sinfulness.  It  is  not  possible,  indeed,  that  we  should 
meet  God  and  not  see  our  own  moral  character  in  its 
true  light.  He  is  the  standard  of  moral  worth,  and 
before  Him  our  moral  worth  cannot  but  be  seen  and 
measured.  In  this  world  our  moral  condition  is  tested 
mainly  by  comparison  with  one  another,  and  in  that 
comparison  we  find  little  to  alarm  us ;  but  if  some 
one  brings  himself  to  a  comparison  with  God  as  He 
stands  revealed  in  His  Word,  how  soon  and  utterly 
his  self-complacency  is  destroyed,  his  justifications  and 
excuses  disappear,  and  he  is  left  to  struggle  as  he  can 
with  the  painful  sense  of  his  sin  and  guilt !  Yet  what 
are  all  the  exposures  and  discoveries  of  character  that 
are  made  in  this  world,  to  that  which  will  be  made  in 
the  unveiled  presence  of  God  when  He  reveals  Him- 
self as  the  Judge  of  all  the  earth  ?  If  you  cannot 
conceal  your  imworthiness  here,  how  will  you  hide  it 
there  ?  If  you  cannot  bear  the  exposure  of  it  now, 
how  can  you  endure  the  full  exposure  then  ?  If  the 
sense  of  alienation  from  God  makes  Him  now  a  trouble 
to  your  heart  at  times,  how  will  you  stand  in  His  im- 
mediate presence ;  how  will  you  enjoy  that  direct 
meeting  with  God  ? 

But  if  there  is  no  condemnation,  if  sin  has  all  been 
pardoned,  if  the  soul  has  been  renewed  in  holiness,  and 
its  affections  have  been  harmonized  with  God,  then  how 
sublime  the  moment  when  the  soul  shall  look  into  the 
eyes  of  God,  and  those  eyes  shall  look  back  upon  him 
only  infinite  tenderness  and  love,  and  he  shall  see  in 
the  infinite  deptlis  of  that  consciousness  into  which 
he  gazes  only  kindness,  only  love  !  Oh,  how  blessed  are 
the  pure  in  heart,  when  they  see  God !     Who  cannot 


MEETING  WITH  GOD.  37 

see  how  great  a  value  dwells  in  that  pardon  of  sin  and 
peace  with  God  which  I  am  here  to  offer  you  in  the 
name  of  Jesus  ?  Oh,  may  it  be  as  sweet  for  you  to 
hear  as  it  is  to  me  to  say,  "  Him  that  cometh  uuto  me, 
I  will  in  no  wise  cast  out." 


38  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 


THE    PATTERN   OF   LIFE. 

Looking  unto  Jesus.  —  Heb.  xii.  2. 

TT  is  natural  to  us  all  to  look  away  from  ourselves  to 
■^  find  a  pattern  for  our  life.  If  the  question  is  asked 
of  us,  "  How  will  you  spend  your  life ;  what  kind  of 
life  will  you  live  ? "  we  do  not  set  about  answering  the 
question  by  consulting  our  own  best  judgment  or  our 
own  highest  interests,  but  we  look  away  from  ourselves 
to  the  different  kinds  of  life  that  are  already  customary 
in  the  world,  and  from  them  choose  the  pattern  that 
pleases  us  best.  Very  few  people  invent  their  own 
dress.  Almost  every  person  accepts  and  wears  the 
kind  and  style  of  dress  which  is  already  fashionable, 
following  without  question  the  example  of  others ;  or 
if  any  depart  from  the  fashion  at  all,  it  is  only  in  some 
very  slight  degree,  sufficient  to  constitute  merely  a 
personal  mark  upon  a  common  style.  This  is  natural, 
and  so  far  right;  and  it  is  a  beneficent  fact,  because 
it  saves  us  from  a  vast  deal  of  trouble  in  studying 
"wherewithal  we  shall  be  clothed."  But  not  only 
are  there  styles  of  dress  which  have  become  general 
fashions,  there  are  also  styles  of  life,  governing  ideas, 
which  have  become  fashionable  among  men  and  women. 
Whoever  has  a  life  to  live  finds  ways  of  living  already 


THE   PATTERN   OF  LIFE.  39 

established  by  custom  and  general  example,  and  he 
falls  into  one  of  these  fashions  of  life  very  much  as 
he  ado[)ts  the  customary  style  of  dress,  and  feels  that 
it  is  a  sufficient  justification  of  his  way  of  living  that 
it  is  the  general  custom.  Every  seed,  when  it  begins 
its  own  life,  finds  that  it  is  already  one  of  a  class 
which  has  its  own  style  of  life ;  and  what  it  will  be, 
whether  a  vine,  a  shrub,  or  a  tree,  what  kind  of  flower 
and  fruit  it  will  bear,  and  all  its  habits,  —  these  matters 
are  decided  by  the  fashions  or  habits  of  its  class  or 
species.  Its  life  is  already  prepared  for  it,  and  it  does 
nothing  but  conform  to  the  fashions  of  its  kind.  This 
is  of  course  in  respect  to  the  plant  a  law  of  Nature 
which  it  cannot  violate ;  but  the  soul  of  man  does 
voluntarily  what  the  plant  does  naturally.  It  gives 
itself  up  to  follow  the  general  example  of  those  who 
constitute  its  class  or  society  in  the  world ;  not  trying 
to  make  life  for  itself,  it  accepts  and  adopts  the  life 
which  the  example  of  others  sets  before  it.  And  to 
do  this,  to  find  a  pattern  for  our  life  in  the  life  of 
others,  is  natural.  In  all  the  earlier  parts  of  life  we 
are  too  weak  and  ignorant  to  do  otherwise.  But  just 
as  a  man  or  woman  may  choose  a  false,  unhealthy, 
ridiculous  style  of  dress,  so  we  may  choose  a  false, 
wrong,  injurious  pattern  for  our  life.  Very  few  lives 
are  original;  every  man  has  his  class,  and  justifies  his 
life  by  its  example ;  and  the  real  question  is  not 
whether  we  will  follow  the  example  of  others  or  make 
our  life  for  ourselves,  but  what  example  we  shall 
follow,  —  for  some  pattern  outside  of  ourselves  we  are 
sure  to  have. 

Since  it  is  thus  natural  to  us  to  follow  in  our  life  a 


40  GOD   IN  NATURE   AND   LIFE. 

pattern  which  we  do  not  make  for  ourselves,  it  would 
seem  to  be  a  true  part  of  God's  care  for  us  to  give  us 
the  pattern  of  a  true,  right,  and  good  life. 

A  pattern  of  life  was  given  us  in  the  giving  of  the 
law,  but  in  a  negative  form.  We  are  shown  in  the 
law  what  a  good  life  is  not.  It  is  not  idolatrous,  not 
profane ;  it  is  not  Sabbath-breaking ;  it  is  not  dis- 
honest, impure,  or  covetous.  By  the  law  is  the  know- 
ledge of  sin,  the  knowledge  of  what  a  good  life  must 
avoid  because  it  is  wrong  and  injurious.  The  man 
who  lives  by  the  law,  the  legalist  in  religion,  will 
naturally  be  most  concerned  merely  not  to  transgress, 
to  keep  within  the  prohibitions  of  the  law,  and  will 
feel  his  life  and  freedom  limited  by  these  prohibitions. 
But  a  perfect  pattern  of  life  in  the  positive  form  was 
ffiven  us  in  the  human  life  of  Christ.  What  a  true, 
good  life  is,  in  its  principles  and  habits,  is  found  in 
Him.  And  the  difference  between  the  life  of  a  legal- 
ist and  a  Christian  life  is  the  difference  between  a  law 
and  a  life,  between  the  Ten  Commandments  and  the 
living  Christ.  The  life  of  a  legalist  may  be  very  regu- 
lar, consistent,  and  blameless,  but  it  lacks  living 
warmth  and  growth  and  freedom.  A  plant  is  alive ; 
it  grows,  it  blossoms  in  beauty,  it  brings  forth  fruit ; 
and  that  is  like  a  Christian  soul.  A  crystal  is  very 
clear,  very  regular,  exactly  according  to  law,  every 
angle  mathematically  true,  but  it  has  no  life,  no 
growth,  no  freedom,  no  blossom,  no  fruit;  and  that  is 
like  a  legalist  soul,  one  who  lives  by  law  rather  than 
by  communion  with  Christ. 

We    may  feel  a  difficulty,  however,  in  thinking  of 
Christ  as  a  pattern  for  our  life,  because  it  is  difficult 


THE   PATTERN   OF   LIFE.  41 

for  us  to  tliink  of  Him  as  a  man,  living  a  man's  life 
in  this  world.  The  divine  nature  which  was  also  in 
Him  overshadows  and  conceals  for  us  the  true  and 
pure  human  life  that  He  lived.  It  may  seem  to  us 
that  He  who  was  Son  of  God,  and  had  all  power  in 
heaven  and  earth,  can  be  no  pattern  for  us  who  have 
lives  to  live  so  far  beneath  His  in  every  way.  It  may 
seem  presumption  for  us  to  make  Him  our  pattern, 
and  impossible  for  us  to  conform  our  lives  to  His. 
But  if  He  was  infinitely  above  us  in  divine  character, 
still  He  was  one  of  us  in  His  human  nature  and  life. 
We  can  properly  look  on  beyond  His  miracles,  His 
Godhead,  His  command  over  all  Nature,  and  see  the 
"  tbrm  of  the  servant,"  the  "  fashion  of  the  man." 
Christ  as  He  lived  in  Palestine  might  come  in  here 
among  us  this  morning,  and  there  would  be  nothing 
to  distinguish  Him  from  any  other  stranger.  In  His 
dress  He  was  like  others,  in  His  appearance  there  was 
nothing  to  betray  His  unusual  character.  He  looked 
like  any  common  man.  His  disciples  lived  with  Him, 
and  talked  with  Him  of  common  affairs,  in  perfect 
familiarity.  When  He  did  His  mighty  works,  He  did 
them  with  no  supernatural  show ;  as  any  man  who 
had  power  would  speak  and  act,  so  did  He.  He  was 
not  taken  out  of  common  human  conditions  and  re- 
lations V)y  His  divine  nature ;  He  was  made  like  unto 
His  brethren,  and  if  we  could  look  into  His  daily 
human  life  Ave  should  see  that  it  was  only  what  we 
mi'^ht  imitate,  and  ouLrht  to  imitate.  He  did  not  come 
merely  to  die  for  us,  but  to  live  before  us  to  show  us 
how  to  live,  to  set  us  an  example  that  we  should  follow 
His  steps.     It  will  not  be  wrong  for  us  to  think  often 


42  GOD  IN  NATURE   AND  LIFE. 

of  Christ  in  this  light,  —  as  a  man,  apart  from  His  awful 

Divinity ;  to  see  that  He  must  often  have  been  j  ust 
where  we  are,  with  the  same  things  to  do,  the  same 
small  obligations  of  home  and  social  life  upon  Him, 
and  to  consider  how  He  acted  in  such  circumstances. 
Christ  is  a  true  pattern  for  us  in  our  earthly  life,  as 
He  is  the  pattern  of  what  we  hope  to  be  in  the  life  to 
come.  He  is  the  one  Son  of  man,  the  model,  the  type, 
the  pattern  for  all  men.  "  Looking  unto  Jesus "  is 
making  His  life  the  pattern  of  our  own,  adopting  the 
principles  of  His  conduct,  justifying  our  life  by  His 
example  and  approbation,  and  disregarding  all  other 
examples  as  not  concerning  us. 

We  have  indeed  but  an  incomplete  history  of  our 
Saviour's  life.  A  few  facts  of  His  childhood,  and  the 
history  of  His  public  ministry  and  miracles,  is  all  that 
is  given  us.  It  is  not,  therefore,  in  particular  acts  or 
in  personal  habits  that  we  can  make  Him  our  pattern. 
But  we  have  a  very  clear  statement  of  the  principles, 
the  moral  spirit,  the  great  ideas,  which  governed  His 
life  and  made  it  what  it  was ;  and  it  is  in  these  things 
that  He  must  be  our  pattern.  There  is  a  type  of  every 
kind  of  plant,  and  Nature  forms  every  plant  according 
to  the  type  of  its  species  ;  yet  not  by  holding  up  the 
type  as  a  working  model,  and  mechanically  making  the 
plant  like  the  type  in  its  form  and  I'ruit,  but  by  giving 
to  the  seed  the  principles  and  tendencies  of  the  kind 
of  plant  it  is  to  be :  then  by  the  living  growth  under 
the  control  of  those  principles  it  comes  to  be  like  its 
type.  So  our  souls  must  make  the  principles  and 
moral  spirit  of  Christ  the  principles  and  spirit  of  our 
life ;   and  living  by  these   principles,  we  sliall   make 


THE  PATTERN  OF  LIFE.  43 

our  lives  like  His.  If  we  could  know  all  the  personal 
habits  of  Christ,  —  how  He  dressed,  how  He  regulated 
His  diet,  how  He  practised  His  devotions,  how  He 
treated  others,  —  if  we  could  know  all  His  manners, 
and  how  He  spent  the  day,  from  morning  till  night, 
and  should  in  all  these  things  do  just  as  He  did,  still 
we  might  not  at  all  be  Christlike.  He  is  all  the  more 
a  perfect  pattern  for  us  because  we  know  so  little  of 
Him  personally,  and  because  the  great  principles  of 
His  lile  are  what  we  do  know  most  about. 

Looking  unto  Jesus,  then,  for  a  pattern  for  our  life, 
we  are  obliged  first  of  all  to  consider  His  piety.  His 
religion,  as  a  pattern  for  our  own.  No  man  can  claim 
any  resemblance  to  Him  who  is  not  truly  religious. 
His  was  pre-eminently  a  religious  life.  And  with  Him 
religion  was  not  something  added  to  His  life  as  a  mere 
part  of  it ;  it  was  the  character  of  the  whole.  If  He 
is  the  pattern  for  the  life  of  men,  then  piety  is  the 
very  first  and  highest  requisite  of  a  true  human  life. 
The  very  name  of  Christ  can  suggest  nothing  but 
religion.  If  we  tried  to  think  of  Him  leaving  out 
His  religious  character,  we  could  not  think  of  Him 
at  all.  Our  minds  cannot  conceive  of  Him  without 
encountering  His  religious  character  in  every  view 
we  take  of  Him.  Is  He  in  this  a  true  pattern  of  a 
true  life  ?  Is  piety  an  absolute  necessity  ?  I  will 
not  attempt  to  prove  it.  Those  who  deny  it  must 
take  tlie  responsibility.  I  only  say  that  men  who  live 
their  life  without  piety  live  a  false  life.  They  are  not 
true  to  their  own  nature,  to  their  own  conscience,  to 
their  relations  to  themselves,  to  God,  or  to  immortality. 
A  soul  without  religion  is  only  a  small  part  of  a  human 


44  GOD   IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

soul,  and  a  life  without  piety  is  only  a  small  part  of  a 
complete  human  life.  Look  around  you  upon  the  men 
and  women  that  you  know  who  are  without  piety 
toward  God,  —  without  religion,  as  we  commonly  ex- 
press it.  They  perhaps  possess  abilities  and  positions 
that  command  your  respect,  and  their  behavior  in  the 
ordinary  relations  of  this  world  may  be  honorable  and 
kind.  I  would  not  take  from  them  one  particle  of  the 
respect  in  which  they  are  held ;  but  their  lives  are  false 
lives,  —  there  is  a  great  and  radical  wrong  in  their  way 
of  living.  Looking  on  them  as  citizens  and  neighbors, 
we  might  not  see  this;  but  looking  on  them  as  God's 
creatures  going  on  to  another  world,  we  cannot  help 
seeing  how  wholly  false  their  life  without  piety  is. 
And  just  this  is  the  danger,  and  the  total  falsity,  of 
all  the  patterns  of  life  that  we  find  in  this  world.  They 
do  not  recognize  a  soul  in  man,  or  a  God  in  heaven,  or 
a  life  beyond  the  grave.  Can  we  be  satisfied  to  live 
our  life  on  a  plan  so  false  ?  Is  not  Christ  tlie  true 
pattern  for  us,  and  especially  because  His  life  makes 
piety  the  great  and  ruling  principle  ?  Should  a  man, 
in  order  to  live  truly  and  rightly,  cast  religion  out  of 
his  life,  and  disregard  God  and  immortality  ?  It  is 
not  possible  for  any  sane  man  to  think  so.  But  where 
shall  we  find  a  true  pattern  of  religion  for  our  life, 
except  in  Christ  ?  There  is  no  other.  He  is  the  only 
pattern  of  religion  that  any  of  us  could  choose  if  we 
chose  at  all. 

But  there  is  a  special  character  belonging  to  tlie 
piety  of  Christ  which  should  be  the  pattern  of  our 
own.  The  piety  of  Christ  seems  to  differ  from  all 
other   in  the  character  of  familiar,  confiding,  intimate 


THE  PATTERN   OF  LIFE.  45 

friendship  with  God.  He  once  said  to  His  disciples, 
"  All  ye  shall  leave  me  alone ;  and  yet  I  am  not  alone, 
for  the  Father  is  with  me."  He  lived  in  the  society 
of  God;  God  was  His  company,  His  companion,  al- 
ways near,  always  accessible.  And  most  evidently 
His  religious  experience  was  an  experience  of  pleas- 
ant, familiar  intercourse  with  God,  concealing  nothing, 
fearing  nothing.  It  is  this  that  we  should  have  felt  if 
we  could  have  seen  Him  when  He  was  on  earth.  We 
should  have  felt  that  He  was  very  intimate  with  God, 
very  independent  of  human  aid  and  of  human  neglect, 
because  He  found  a  blessed  and  constant  sympathy 
in  God.  Christ  is  Christ,  not  because  He  was  so  holy, 
so  pure,  so  perfect,  not  because  He  was  to  God  so 
faithful  a  servant,  but  because  He  was  so  intimate,  so 
familiar,  so  friendly  with  God.  This  is  the  great  char- 
acteristic of  His  personal  religion.  In  this  familiar, 
friendly  intimacy  with  God,  in  a  life  of  trust  and 
prayer,  He  made  His  religion  to  consist.  It  was  so 
different  a  pattern  of  religion  from  that  whicli  then 
was  fashionable.  It  put  profound  contempt  upon  mere 
ceremonials,  mere  forms  of  religion,  in  which,  accord- 
ing to  the  prevailing  pattern,  religion  was  made  to 
consist. 

This  character  of  our  Saviour's  piety  we  should 
make  the  pattern  of  our  own.  There  are  other  kinds 
of  religious  life,  which  may  be  very  sincere  and  earnest, 
but  which  are  of  necessity  imperfect.  There  is  a  style 
of  piety  which  might  be  called  a  religion  of  worship, 
in  which  reverence  is  the  great  characteristic.  We 
come  to  God  as  worshippers  merely;  we  do  not  think 
of  Him  as  near  to  us,  our  Friend,  in  whom  we  lovingly- 


46  GOD   IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

confide  ;  we  have  no  feeling  of  familiarity  and  affec- 
tion toward  Him.  We  revere,  we  worship  Him,  but 
we  go  no  nearer  to  Him  ;  He  is  not  society  for  us,  — 
He  is  rather  the  great  and  awful  Majesty,  before  whom 
we  are  so  very  little  as  to  be  almost  beneath  His  sight. 
There  is  not  too  much  of  reverence  in  this  kind  of 
religion,  but  there  is  too  little  knowledge.  There  is 
too  little  knowledge  of  what  God  really  is,  and  there 
is  too  little  surrendering  of  self  in  trustful  confidence 
to  Him.  We  need  to  look  unto  Jesus,  the  pattern  for 
our  piety,  who  lived  at  peace  in  the  society  of  God. 
If  we  look  unto  Jesus  for  our  type  of  piety,  we  shall 
learn  that  God  is  to  be  loved,  that  He  is  to  be  con- 
fidingly trusted,  that  He  is  to  be  familiarly  approached, 
that  He  is  to  be  our  company. 

So,  too,  there  is  a  style  of  piety  that  may  be  called 
a  religion  of  conscience,  wliich  is  chiefly  concerned 
either  with  its  sins  or  with  its  duties.  Its  experience 
consists  in  self-condemnings,  half  despair,  doubts  and 
fears  of  God's  mercy,  anxieties  about  what  one  has 
done  or  what  one  may  do.  It  is  a  constant  effort  to 
keep  right  in  our  own  eyes,  with  the  misery  of  a  con- 
stant failure  to  do  so,  and  a  cry  to  God  for  pardon  and 
lielp.  There  are  times  when  souls  in  such  a  life  may 
truly  taste  the  joys  of  salvation  for  a  little  wliile,  as 
when  strong  outward  religious  influences,  like  those 
of  a  revival,  take  them  away  from  themselves,  and 
their  hearts  are  free  to  rejoice  in  the  joy  of  others. 
This  is  a  very  genuine,  amiable,  and  sincere  religion, 
but  it  is  imperfect  when  judged  by  the  great  pattern 
of  piety.  It  lacks  the  peace,  the  rest,  the  confidence 
in   God,  the   friendly  feeling  toward  Him  that  marks 


THE   PATTERN   OF   LIFE.  47 

the  piety  of  Christ.  There  is  perhaps  a  little  lingering 
remnant  of  self-righteousness  mingling  in  it,  showing 
itself  in  making  so  much  of  duty  and  obedience,  and 
so  little  of  the  atoning  power  of  Christ's  death  and  the 
forgiving  grace  of  God.  The  soul  says  to  itself,  "  You 
must  not  hope  very  confidently  in  God,  because  you 
are  so  sinful,"  —  not  accepting  in  all  its  fulness  the 
great  Christian  truth  that  wholly  for  Christ's  sake  God 
freely  forgives  the  soul.  We  may  perhaps  feel,  indeed, 
that  Christ  could  be  thus  familiar,  friendly,  and  in- 
timate with  God  only  because  He  was  so  sinless. 
Undoubtedly  it  is  true  that  a  soul  in  order  to  feel  thus 
must  either  be  without  sin  or  be  permitted  to  feel  that 
his  sin  is  atoned  for  and  forgiven.  But  surely  when 
sin  has  been  atoned  for  and  pardoned,  and  the  soul 
is  restored  to  God's  favor,  it  is  in  a  condition  to  ap- 
proach Him  with  confidence,  unhindered  by  the  re- 
membrance of  sin.  It  is  prepared  to  come  all  the 
more  near,  and  approach  all  the  more  confidingly,  by 
the  remembrance  of  that  great  love  which  has  par- 
doned. Has  not  Christ  done  enough  to  assure  His 
disciple  that  his  sins  are  pardoned,  and  do  not  any 
longer  alienate  God's  love  from  him  ?  Do  you  believe 
that  Christ's  death  is  an  atonement  for  the  sins  of 
those  who  believe  on  Him  ?  Do  you  believe  that  God 
forgives  the  sins  of  such  ?  Then,  tliough  you  are  sinful, 
you  are  to  feel  no  less  confidence  in  coming  to  God 
than  if  you  were  not.  All  that  familiar,  perfect  con- 
fidence in  God  which  appears  so  beautiful  in  Christ 
is  just  as  much  the  privilege  of  every  penitent  sinner 
as  it  was  of  Christ  Himself. 

But  we  may  say  also  that  Christ  could  not  doubt 


48  GOD  IN  NATURE   AND   LIFE. 

God's  great  love  for  Him,  and  that  this  was  the  reason 
why  He  could  feel  thus  familiar  and  intimate  with 
God.  And  it  is  true  that  if  God  does  not  truly  love 
us,  we  can  never  feel  a  familiar  confidence  in  approach- 
ing Him.  But  had  Christ  any  greater  reason  to  think 
that  God  loved  Him  than  you  and  I  have  to  be  sure 
that  He  loves  us  ?  Ah,  but  God  went  and  lived  in 
Him,  made  Him  the  very  temple  of  His  residence, 
constituted  Him  heir  of  all  things.  Yes,  it  is  true; 
but  for  wliose  sake  did  He  do  all  this  ?  Was  it  for 
Jesus'  own  sake,  or  for  yours  and  mine  ?  All  the 
glory,  all  the  power,  all  the  truth,  all  the  grace  which 
God  gave  to  Jesus,  He  gave  for  us.  His  love  was  not 
thinking  so  much  of  Him  as  it  was  of  us.  It  is  indeed 
necessary  to  know  that  God  loves  us  trul}^,  tenderly, 
before  we  can  feel  that  familiar,  happy  confidence  and 
intimacy  with  Him  which  our  pattern  presents.  But 
how  can  we  doubt  it  ?  How  dare  we  question  God's 
love  for  us  ?  What  could  make  us  believe  it,  if  what 
He  is  and  what  He  had  done  for  us  cannot  ?  If  our 
soul  seeks  Him,  we  ought  to  take  it  as  a  settled  and 
unquestionable  thing  that  God  loves  us.  If  only  this 
simple  confidence  could  take  stronger  hold  of  us,  we 
should  find  ourselves  better  able  to  make  our  religion 
more  like  that  of  our  great  pattern  of  perfect  piety. 

But  we  may  still  say  that  God's  presence  and  power 
dwelt  with  Christ  in  so  intimate  and  constant  a  manner 
as  to  enable  Him  to  feel  familiar  and  intimate  with 
the  Father  as  we  cannot.  It  is  true  that  if  God  is  not 
present  with  us,  if  He  is  not  caring  for  us,  if  He  goes 
away  from  us  and  forgets  us,  if  we  do  not  live  in  His 
knowledge  and  remembrance,  we  cannot  feel  that  in- 


THE   PATTERN  OF  LIFE.  49 

timate,  confiding  affection  and  trust  toward  Him  which 
our  pattern  sliows  us.  But  oh,  what  abundant,  what 
perfect  assurances  fill  the  whole  Bible  that  He  is  al- 
ways with  us  ;  tliat  we  live  and  move  and  have  our 
being  in  Him ;  that  His  Spirit  abideth  with  us  and 
sliall  be  in  us ;  that  the  very  hairs  of  our  head  are 
all  numbered,  our  steps  all  counted  !  In  every  place, 
at  every  moment,  we  are  with  Him.  Always  He  is 
before  our  face  and  on  our  right  hand.  His  presence 
besets  us  before  and  behind,  and  His  watchful  provi- 
dence is  always  caring  for  us.  No  friend,  however 
intimate,  is  so  near  to  us,  so  always  with  us,  as  He. 
Let  us  permit  ourselves  to  see  this  fact,  and  continu- 
ally to  believe  it,  and  it  will  help  us  to  be  like  our 
pattern  in  that  free,  happy,  familiar  intercourse  with 
God  which  distinguished  Him.  It  is  by  realizing 
God's  close  and  constant  presence  and  providence 
that  we  must  come  nearer  to  Him.  However  much 
is  implied  in  this  ftimiliar  friendliness,  this  intimate 
intercourse  with  God,  still  it  is  all  provided  for,  and 
any  kind  of  piety  that  does  not  include  it  must  always 
be  imperfect.  It  may  be  long  before  we  come  to  the 
measure  of  our  pattern,  but  we  must  make  the  piety 
of  Christ  the  model  of  our  own  in  this  respect,  and  be 
ever  striving  toward  it.  So  deeply  do  we  need  just 
this  familiar  intimacy  with  God  for  the  rest  of  our 
hearts  and  the  work  of  our  life !  It  is  hard  to  live  a 
true  life  in  our  outer  relations  toward  others,  when 
the  centre  of  life  within  is  unsettled  and  disturbed. 
When  the  ground  under  our  feet  is  agitated  by  an 
earthquake,  we  can  think  of  nothing  and  care  for 
nothing  but  our  own  safe  standing.     Let  us  cultivate 

4 


50  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

our  Saviour's  standard  of  piety,  that  like  Him  we  may 
always  be  sustained,  and  always  have  peace  in  the 
inmost  heart. 

Christ  would  not  be  a  perfect  pattern  for  our  life  if 
He  did  not  further  set  us  an  example  for  our  inter- 
course with  others.  In  all  social  relations,  as  well  as 
in  piety,  His  life  is  the  pattern  for  ours. 

"We  know,  indeed,  that  His  social  life  is  a  perfect 
pattern  of  benevolence.  "  He  went  about  doing  good." 
There  was  no  pride,  no  exclusiveness  in  Him ;  all, 
however  poor  and  despised,  felt  free  to  approach  Him, 
and  were  unembarrassed  in  His  presence.  His  sym- 
pathies were  accessible  to  the  worst  as  well  as  to  the 
best.  He  loved  children,  and  His  love  for  His 
friends  was  as  pure  as  His  love  for  the  little  ones. 
He  was  the  friend  of  man, — everybody's  friend,  broad, 
deep,  and  perfect  in  all  His  sympathies  toward  all  man- 
kind. He  could  not  be  unjust.  He  resented  nothing 
personally.  He  despised  none,  not  even  the  Pharisees 
whom  He  so  heavily  condemned.  He  was  above  all 
jealousies,  above  all  resentments,  above  all  selfishness. 
He  held  Himself  always  ready  to  receive  and  meet 
the  calls  that  the  wants  of  others  made  upon  Him. 
Oh,  it  was  indeed  a  wondrous  human  life  that  our 
Saviour  lived !  Who  can  wonder  at  the  charac- 
ter to  which  His  apostles  came,  —  at  the  almost 
divine  character  of  John,  the  disciple  whom  Jesus 
loved  ?  How  imperishable  their  love  for  Him  must 
have  been  !  How  great  His  transforming  power  upon 
them ! 

"We  are  ready  to  say,  "  But  all  this  is  exceptional, 
and  to  us  impossible."     Let  us  first,  however,  ask  how 


THE  PATTERN  OF  LIFE.  51 

He  could  live  such  a  life,  so  free  from  all  the  wrong 
passions  that  mar  our  relations  to  others ;  how  He 
could  live  in  a  world  of  sinners,  a  world  that  hated 
and  persecuted  Him,  and  not  sin  in  His  relations  to 
men.  How  did  He  begin  ?  How  did  He  look  upon 
men  so  as  to  be  able  to  treat  them  always  with  such 
compassion,  such  patience,  such  changeless  benevolence 
and  love  ?  It  was  because  He  looked  upon  them  as 
He  did.  He  looked  upon  all  men  as  God's  creatures, 
going  into  another  world  to  be  eternally  happy  or 
eternally  miserable.  He  saw  them  in  this  light  of 
eternity,  and  in  their  relation  to  God  as  subjects  and 
as  sinners.  He  saw  men  aright,  and  therefore  He 
could  treat  men  rightly.  And  if  we  would  make  Him 
our  pattern,  we  must  not  only  try  in  special  cases  to 
be  patient,  forgiving,  helpful,  but  we  must  begin  as 
He  did,  —  by  looking  on  ourselves  and  all  around  us 
as  God's  creatures,  all  ungrown  and  imperfect,  all 
needing  mercy  and  help,  all  going  straight  on  to  the 
judgment  after  death.  If  we  teach  ourselves  to  look 
thus  on  all  around  us,  we  shall  not  find  it  hard  to 
be  Christlike  in  our  social  relations.  Have  you  an 
enemy  ?  You  must  love  him.  But  how  can  you  ? 
By  looking  upon  him  as  belonging  to  God,  and  as 
going  with  you  to  the  judgment-seat  of  Christ;  by 
remembering  how  soon  both  you  and  he  will  be  in 
your  graves,  and  your  spirits  in  God's  presence.  Do 
we  need  a  spirit  of  kindliness,  sympathy,  interest  in 
the  people  around  us  ?  Let  us  look  on  them  and 
ourselves  as  all  being  tried  and  disciplined  by  our 
lives  in  this  world  for  a  so  much  greater  life  hereafter. 
Looking  thus  on  men,  we  shall  never  resent  with  per- 


52  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

sonal  anger  their  offences,  or  wickedly  withdraw  our- 
selves from  them  because  they  do  not  please  our  tastes. 
In  the  presence  of  God  and  before  the  great  eternity 
our  little  distinctions  of  wealth  and  talent  and  learn- 
ing and  goodness  vanish ;  we  are  all  equal  here,  and 
we  can  feel  a  brotherly  sentiment  toward  all.  Christ 
saw  us  all  thus  before  God  and  before  eternity,  and 
needing  help,  and  gave  Himself  for  us  in  life  and 
death.  This  loving  and  lovely  spirit  of  the  Master 
will  come  to  us  when  we  see  God  and  eternity  behind 
every  man,  as  we  see  the  great,  infinite  sky  behind  the 
trees. 

When  God  has  been  served,  and  our  neighbor  has 
been  rightly  treated,  we  still  have  ourselves,  our  personal 
course  and  fortunes  in  the  world,  to  think  of.  What, 
then,  can  we  learn  from  the  example  of  Christ  in  this 
respect  ?  The  example  that  He  has  given  us  appears 
to  follow  from  His  doctrine  of  Divine  Providence.  He 
does  not  begin  life,  as  we  so  often  do,  with  the  thought, 
"  I  must  take  care  of  myself,  I  must  make  my  own 
fortune."  Thus  minded,  we  feel  obliged  to  make  our 
fortunes  in  the  world  our  first  concern.  But  He  begins 
with  the  thought,  "  My  Father  knoweth  what  things  I 
have  need  of:  my  life  is  in  His  care,  and  He  will  see 
to  it."  This  thought  of  the  Heavenly  Father's  Provi- 
dence is  the  first,  the  ruling  thought  of  Christ  respecting 
personal  fortunes  in  this  world.  This  is  the  thought  of 
Him  who  is  our  pattern,  and  looking  unto  Jesus  we 
should  make  this  thought  our  own.  And  this  thought 
will  save  us  from  the  two  great  errors  which  without 
it  are  almost  certain  to  spoil  our  lives.  Trusting  to 
the  providence  of  God,  and  submitting  ourselves  to  its 


THE   PATTERN   OF   LIFE.  53 

care,  we  shall  not  be  led  off  to  seek  our  advancement 
by  unnatural  or  dishonest  means.  Our  Lord  would 
not  conseut  to  change  stones  into  bread  for  His  own 
advantage.  He  would  wait  on  tlie  providence  of  God, 
and  do  what  Providence  opened  to  him  the  opportunity 
of  doing ;  but  he  would  not  force  events,  as  if  He  had 
His  own  fortunes  to  secure.  You  think  God  will  not 
take  care  of  you,  and  therefore  make  it  the  first  thought 
and  business  of  your  life  to  take  care  of  yourself;  and 
when  you  make  this  your  first  thought,  you  are  as 
unlike  Christ  as  you  can  be.  And  believing  in  the 
providence  of  God  over  all  the  life  we  live,  we  are 
saved  from  the  anxieties,  the  eagerness  for  property, 
the  foolish  passion  for  possession,  which  is  like  a 
canker  on  so  many  lives.  Christ's  great  idea  of  provi- 
dence made  Him  feel  that  His  fortune  was  secure, 
and  left  Him  free  to  do  His  work  and  fulfil  His  life 
without  distraction  of  worldly  care.  We  have  need  of 
avoiding  in  our  life  the  mischief  which  the  strife  for 
money  does  to  so  many  souls.  We  must  set  our  hearts 
upon  avoiding  the  sordid  anxieties,  the  selfish  calcula- 
tions, and  the  dangerous  temptations  which  mingle  in 
the  life  of  so  many.  Let  us  look  unto  Jesus,  our  great 
pattern.  Let  us  accustom  ourselves,  with  Him,  to  this 
great  fact,  that  we  are  in  the  hands  and  care  of  God. 
Under  that  care  we  can  do  our  work  without  anxiety, 
and  contemplate  the  future  without  fear. 

How  true,  how  right  and  good,  our  life  would  be  if 
Christ  were  its  pattern !  Let  us  make  Him  our  guide. 
Let  Him  be  our  Public  Opinion.  Let  it  be  enough  for 
us  that  His  example  justifies  us,  even  though  others 
condemn.     Looking  unto  Jesus,  we  shall  not  only  learn 


54  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

to  live,  but  find  strength  to  live,  and  sympathy  and 
encouragement  for  all  our  life.  Let  us  forsake  all  other 
guides,  take  up  our  cross,  and  follow  Him.  Whosoever 
follows  Jesus  shall  not  walk  in  darkness,  but  shall  have 
the  light  of  life. 


LOVING  JESUS.  55 


LOVING    JESUS. 

And  he  said  unto  him,  Lord,  thou  knowest  all  things,  thou 
knowest  that  I  love  thee.  —  John  xxi.  17. 

Tr)I'"i'EE'S  own  conduct  in  the  judgment-hall  had 
-*-  justified  a  doubt  of  his  love  for  the  Master.  He 
had  utterly  denied  Him.  It  was  proper  that  some 
notice  should  be  taken  of  such  a  fact,  and  this  is  the 
notice  that  Jesus  does  take  of  it,  —  He  asks  Peter, 
very  pointedly  and  significantly,  whether  He  loves 
Him ;  for  after  what  He  has  done,  this  point  requires 
to  be  settled  anew.  Peter  did  love  his  Master,  and  it 
was  not  because  he  did  not  love  Him  that  he  had  denied 
Him.  He  had  been  overtaken  with  a  sudden  fear,  and 
under  this  influence  had  denied  that  he  was  a  disciple 
of  Jesus,  in  order  to  save  himself.  His  love  was  indeed 
imperfect,  but  it  was  real;  and  it  shows  us  how  one 
who  really  loves  Christ  may  still  sin  against  Him. 
When  we  indulge  ourselves  in  supreme  regard  for  our 
own  safety  and  comfort,  such  regard  for  ourselves  will 
suppress  for  the  time  all  regard  for  others,  even  for 
Christ.  Jesus  knew  that  Peter  loved  Him,  and  this 
was  the  only  reproof,  —  if  this  can  even  be  called  a 
reproof,  —  that  He  ever  gave  him  for  his  sin.  And 
yet  it  must  have  cut  the  heart  of  Peter  to  have  his 


56  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

love  thus  questioned,  as  if  he  were  distrusted  by  the 
Master. 

But  Jesus  had  a  great  work  for  Peter  to  do,  aud  this 
was  another  reason  for  asking  if  he  loved  Him.  Peter 
was  to  be  a  shepherd  to  the  sheep  and  lambs  of  Christ's 
flock,  and  love  to  Christ  alone  could  fit  him  for  his 
pastoral  office  and  work.  And  there  was  very  much  of 
suffering  for  Peter  to  endure ;  and  this  was  yet  another 
reason  for  thus  appealing  to  his  love,  —  for  if  he  did 
not  love  Christ  above  all  things,  he  could  not  endure 
the  sufferings  in  life  and  the  martyrdom  in  death  which 
awaited  him  when  he  should  be  old,  and  another  should 
gird  him,  and  lead  him  whither  he  would  not.  So 
Peter,  all  through  his  life,  when  there  was  hard  work 
and  harder  suffering  before  him,  would  hear  the  Master's 
voice  asking,  "  Simon,  lovest  thou  me  ? "  and  this  appeal 
would  nerve  him  for  his  work  and  sustain  him  in  his 
suffering. 

The  disciples  must  have  loved  Jesus  with  a  very 
tender  affection :  He  was  so  loving  Himself,  so  gentle, 
patient,  and  compassionate,  while  He  was  also  so  great, 
so  wonderful.  We  cannot  conceive  a  character  so 
adapted  to  touch  the  heart  and  awaken  love  in  those 
who  lived  with  Him,  as  the  character  of  Jesus.  He 
made  Himself  free  with  them ;  He  ate  with  them,  slepl 
with  them,  talked  His  pure,  sweet  wisdom  with  them  as 
they  sat  in  the  house  or  walked  the  rough  ways.  He  waa 
beautiful  in  person,  tender  as  a  woman  to  the  sick  and 
miserable,  grand  as  a  king  among  His  enemies,  great  as 
a  God  among  tlie  elements  of  Nature,  and  everywhere 
their  friend.  There  was  every  quality  in  Him  to  touch 
their  reverence,  and  to  draw  out  a  strong,  imperishable 


LOVING  JESUS.  57 

personal  affection.  And  this  was  what  they  felt  for 
Him  while  lie  lived  and  when  He  died.  When  they 
saw  Him  hanging  on  the  tree,  amid  the  mockeries  of 
His  enemies,  gentle,  loving,  patient  still,  and  dying 
with  His  last  cry  to  God,  it  was  a  deep  and  personal 
affection  that  they  felt  toward  Him.  When  the  won- 
derful report  was  spread  that  He  had  risen  from  the 
dead,  when  they  saw  Him  in  the  inner  chamber  where 
they  had  met,  and  on  the  shore  of  Galilee,  it  was  with 
a  tender  personal  affection  for  Him  that  they  were  glad 
when  they  saw  the  Lord.  And  after  He  had  ascended 
up  to  heaven,  when  they  went  abroad  in  the  world, 
telling  men  of  His  wonderful  life  and  death  and 
resurrection,  they  spoke  of  Him  as  of  one  they  loved, 
the  dearest,  nearest  friend  that  they  possessed.  His 
glory,  His  Godhead,  did  not  take  Him  away  from 
them.  They  had  seen  Him,  known  Him,  touched 
Him  here  on  earth,  and  these  sacred  memories  of  their 
intercourse  with  Him  kept  alive  that  personal  love  for 
Him  which  made  warm  their  hearts  in  all  discourage- 
ments and  trials.  And  when  they  came  to  die,  though 
it  were  by  cruel  crucifixions,  the  prospect  that  cheered 
them  through  was  the  prospect  of  being  with  Him 
again.  The  triumph  of  this  thought  destroyed  the 
power  of  death,  and  their  hearts  leaped  joyfully  over 
all  the  intervening  darkness  to  the  welcome  from  Him 
to  which  they  looked. 

It  would  seem  at  first  thought  impossible  that  any 
other  disciples  of  Christ  should  have  so  great  a  personal 
affection  for  Jesus  as  these,  the  personal  associates  and 
daily  companions  of  His  earthly  life.  What  woman 
could  so  feel  the  personal  influence  of  Jesus  as  those 


58  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND   LIFE. 

three  or  four  who  had  seen  the  wondrous  beauty  of 
those  deep  eyes  when  the  infinite  tenderness  of  God 
looked  through  upon  them  while  they  ministered  offices 
of  love  to  Him,  or  as  that  poor  sinful  one  who  kissed 
the  feet  that  stand  now  on  the  footstool  of  tlie  great 
white  throne  ?  Or  what  disciple  could  feel  such  a 
personal  love  for  Him  as  that  young,  loving  John  who 
had  lain  in  His  bosom  and  felt  around  him  the  loving 
arras  of  Christ?  Yet  I  would  not  dare  to  say  that 
there  have  not  been  many  thousands  of  Christians  who 
have  loved  Jesus  with  as  strong  a  personal  affection  as 
ever  He  received  from  Mary  or  from  John,  although 
they  have  never  seen  His  face  or  heard  His  voice.  It 
is  remarkable  that  Jesus  never  appears  to  think  that 
His  going  out  of  the  world  will  make  any  difference  to 
the  love,  the  affection,  of  His  people  for  Him.  He  does 
not  expect  that  His  followers  will  love  Him  any  the 
less  because  He  is  no  longer  on  the  earth.  He  does 
not  think  it  necessary  that  men  should  see  Him  or  be 
physically  near  Him  in  order  to  love  Him.  He  expects 
of  you  and  me  to  love  Him,  as  much  as  He  did  of 
Peter,  James,  and  John.  It  is  love  for  Himself  that 
He  requires,  and  if  we  love  Him  not,  we  have  no  part 
in  Him. 

I  wish  to  deal  with  this  idea  of  personal  affection 
for  our  Saviour.  I  would  take  love  for  Christ  in  the 
simple,  natural  sense  in  which  Peter  used  it  when  he 
said,  "  Lord,  Thou  knowest  all  things ;  Thou  knovvest 
that  I  love  Tliee."  He  did  not  mean  any  philosophical 
or  theological  definition  of  love,  but  a  natural,  human, 
loving  affection  for  Jesus.  He  meant  that  he  loved 
Him,  —  loved   to  be  with   Him,  loved   to   hear   Him 


LOVING  JESUS.  59 

speak,  loved  to  please  Him,  and  thought  more  of 
Christ's  love  for  him  tluui  of  anything  else  in  the 
world.  I  cannot  help  thinking  what  an  effect  this 
personal  love  for  Jesus  would  have  upon  his  piety. 
Faith,  for  Peter,  was  not  merely  a  belief  in  the  truth ; 
it  was  confiding  in  One  whom  he  knew  and  loved. 
Prayer  was  but  another  foim  of  his  personal  intercourse 
with  Christ.  A  Christian  life  was  not  for  him  so  many 
duties,  so  many  laws  and  obligations ;  a  Christian  life 
for  him  was  nothing  more  than  his  friendship  with 
Jesus.  Our  Christian  life  needs  nothing  so  much  as 
more  of  this  element  of  personal  love  for  Christ.  Our 
religion  is  cold,  it  does  not  warm  our  hearts.  It  is  a 
worship  of  God,  or  a  hope  of  heaven,  or  a  striving  after 
perfection,  or  a  conscientiousness  about  sins  and  duties. 
If  added  to  all  this  there  could  be  a  warm,  loving  per- 
sonal affection  for  Jesus,  we  should  be  not  only  so  much 
freer,  but  far  happier.  I  think  that  nothing  could  make 
any  of  us  so  happy  at  heart  as  a  warm,  conscious  love 
for  Jesus.  We  feel  the  need  of  something  real  and 
personal  in  the  object  of  our  faith.  We  try  to  conceive 
a  spiritual  and  infinite  God,  but  He  is  too  vast,  too  far 
from  us,  and  there  is  no  real  satisfaction  of  heart  in 
thinking  of  Him  if  we  think  in  this  manner  alone. 
We  cry  out  in  the  deeps  of  our  hearts,  "  Such  knowl- 
edge is  too  wonderful  for  me ;  it  is  high ;  I  cannot 
attain  unto  it."  So  with  all  our  piety  we  have  too 
little  present  rest  and  joy.  We  are  reaching  after  the 
unattainable ;  we  lack  the  near,  the  tender,  the  lovable. 
If  it  is  true  that  Christ  is  so  related  to  us  that  we 
can  properly  feel  toward  Him  the  same  simple,  natural 
human  love  that  His  disciples  felt,  —  if  such  a  love  is 


60  GOD  IN  NATURE   AND  LIFE. 

possible  in  us  and  will  Le  accepted  with  Him,  —  then 
this  is  a  truth  that  deeply  concerns  us,  and  one  that 
should  be  deeply  considered.     One  question  that  we 
have  first   to  answer  is,  Can  we  feel  a  true  personal 
affection  for  Jesus  ?     Can  we  love  Him  as  John  did 
and  as  Mary  did  ?     We  shall  find  the  answer  to  this 
question  in  the  answers  to  some  other  questions.     Is 
Jesus  alive  now  ?     For  if  He  is  dead,  if  He  has  wholly 
gone  out  of  the  world,  if  He  has  nothing  to  do  with 
the   world    at   present,    we   may   greatly   admire    His 
character,  and  cherish  reverence  for  His  teaching  and 
example,  but  I  do  not  see  how  we  can  feel  a  personal 
affection  for  Him.     We  cannot  give  personal  love  to 
those  who  do  not   exist.     They   themselves   are   gone 
beyond  our  reach.     We  love  living  persons.     If  Jesus 
is  a  living  person,  if  He  is  now  the  same  person  whose 
history  we  know,  He  is  so  far  a  proper  object  for  our 
personal  love.     And  this  He  is.     He  died  at  Jerusalem, 
but  He  was  dead  only  till  the  third  day.     He  returned 
to  life,  He  is  alive  now.     He  ascended  in  the  clouds ; 
but  it  was  the  same  Jesus,  with  the  same  body  that 
had  been  seen  on  earth,  and  He  is  the  same  to-day. 
He  is  a  living  person.     All  that  He  was,  He  is.     All 
that  made  Him  lovable  is  in  Him  still.     There  is  no 
reason  why    He  should  not   be  loved.     He   is  not  a 
shadow,  not  an  impassible,  unfeeling  ghost,  but  a  living, 
loving  man  and  God.     Those  wlio  are  near  Him  can 
love  Him.     He  can  be  loved  as  much  as  when  He  sat 
at  supper  in  the  house  of  Lazarus  at  Bethany. 

But  is  He  anything  to  us  ?  Does  He  hold  any  per- 
sonal relation  to  you  and  me  ?  For  if  He  has  no  re- 
lation to  us,  if  there  is  no  connection  between  His  life 


LOVING  JESUS.  61 

and  yours  and  mine,  how  can  we  love  Him  ?  "We 
cannot  feel  a  personal  affection  for  one  who  is  outside 
of  our  life  and  has  no  connection  with  it.  What  is 
Jesus  to  nie  and  to  you  ?  He  is  our  brother  in  nature 
and  experience ;  He  has  lived  our  life  and  borne  our 
sorrows.  He  is  not  an  angel,  He  is  a  man,  one  of  our 
race.  But  at  the  same  time  He  is  God,  —  God  dwelling 
in  a  man.  If  He  were  merely  a  man,  He  would  have 
some  relation  to  us  as  our  fellow,  and  would  be  some- 
thing to  us ;  but  as  God-man,  as  a  man  in  whom  Jeho- 
vah is  incarnate,  how  much  more  directly  and  richly 
is  He  related  to  us !  How  much  more  every  human 
being  is  to  Christ  than  he  is  or  can  be  to  any  one  else ! 
because  He  is  not  only  man,  but  man  and  God  in  one. 
What  Jesus  is  to  us  Thomas  expressed  when  he  ex- 
claimed, "  My  Lord,  and  my  God  ! "  Oh,  yes,  the  di- 
vine character  of  Jesus,  so  far  from  raivsing  Him  beyond 
us  and  separating  Him  from  us,  is  just  what  unites 
Him  more  closely  to  us  all,  and  makes  Him  ours,  our 
own,  as  He  could  not  be  if  He  were  merely  man.  Be- 
cause He  is  a  man,  a  living  man,  we  can  love  Him ; 
but  because  while  He  is  perfectly  a  man  God  dwells 
in  Him  also,  we  can  love  Him  as  we  cannot  love  any 
other,  with  an  adoring,  unlimited  love  and  confidence. 

But  does  He  care  for  us  ?  —  a  question  most  impor- 
tant in  a  personal  affection.  We  can  indeed  love  those 
who  do  not  care  for  us,  but  we  do  not  usually  do  so,  and 
such  affections  are  wont  to  be  sources  of  pain  to  those 
who  feel  them.  H  Jesus  does  not  care  for  me,  can  I  feel 
a  personal  affection  for  Him  ?  And  can  I  say  with  per- 
fect certainty  that  He  does  care  for  me  ?  Can  I  afHrm 
with  certainty  that  He   cares  for   each   one   of  you  ? 


62  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

Wherever  Jesus  may  have  lived  since  He  went  up 
from  the  earth  so  long  ago,  I  cannot  see  what  else  can 
possibly  have  filled  His  heart  but  care  and  love  for 
those  who  have  believed  and  trusted  in  Him.  Con- 
stituted as  He  was  and  is,  it  is  absolutely  necessary 
to  the  conception  of  His  character  to  think  of  Him  as 
caring  for  the  souls  that  are  depending  upon  Him. 
Think  of  Christ,  —  Christ  as  we  know  Him  in  the 
Gospels,  —  caring  for  anything  else  in  preference  to 
His  people,  His  followers  !  What  should  it  be  ?  What 
could  it  be  ?  You  cannot  think,  I  cannot  think,  what 
He  should  have  cared  for  all  these  years,  if  He  did 
not  care  for  the  souls  that  pray,  and  seek  to  be  saved. 
When  He  was  here,  it  was  His  whole  character  and 
nature  to  care  for  these,  and  for  nothing  else  in  the 
world  before  them.  He  has  no  other  interest,  He  can 
have  no  other.  K  we  can  love  Him  only  in  case  He 
first  loves  us,  then  we  need  not  hesitate.  It  is  not 
that  He  loved  us  once,  when  He  died  for  us.  We 
could  love  Him  for  that ;  but  ever  since  He  has  been 
in  heaven  it  has  been  His  whole  life  to  care  for  all 
that  called  upon  Him,  to  watch  the  souls  of  men,  to 
observe  the  first  faint  motion  toward  a  new  life,  to 
foster  it  and  help  it,  to  bring  the  soul  to  repentance 
that  He  may  sanctify  and  save  it.  All  your  Christian 
life  is  the  token  and  proof  of  His  care  for  you.  When 
you  were  first  awakened,  when  you  were  struggling 
with  religious  convictions,  oh,  how  He  cared  for  you, 
how  He  tried  to  help  you !  When  you  repented  and 
believed,  how  gladly  He  received  you  and  gave  you 
peace!  And  every  day  and  hour  since  then  He  has 
cared  for  you   as  He  did  for  His  disciples  when  He 


LOVING  JESUS.  63 

walked  with  them  on  earth.  And  not  only  does  He 
care  for  us,  but  He  cares  for  our  love.  Love  is  what 
He  seeks  to  create  in  us.  Worship  without  love,  —  do 
you  tliiuk  He  cares  much  for  that  ?  Obedience  from 
moral  compulsion, — do  you  think  He  cares  much  for 
that  ?  What  can  we  give  Him  that  He  will  accept  but 
love  ?     How  can  He  care  for  anything  else  from  us  ? 

Let  us  love  Him.  Our  very  souls  are  starving  for 
the  warmth  and  comfort  which  a  true  love  for  Him 
would  give  them.  Many  good,  true  Christians  are  re- 
straining themselves  from  loving  Him  because  they 
do  not  understand  that  loving  Christ  is  the  true  life 
of  religion.  They  need  to  be  told  that  Jesus  cares 
more  for  one  affectionate  emotion  toward  Himself  than 
for  all  their  worship  and  awe.  If  we  do  not  love  Him, 
He  Avants  nothing  of  our  worship,  nothing  of  our 
service.  Do  we  understand  that  this  is  what  religion 
requires  ?  It  is  to  love  Jesus.  Many  suppose  that 
what  religion  demands  is  a  certain  kind  of  goodness, 
holiness,  and  that  to  be  Christians  they  must  be  un- 
naturally good.  But  it  is  love  for  Christ  in  which 
true  religion  consists.  Could  you  love  Jesus  with  a 
heartfelt  love  if  that  was  all  that  God  required  of 
you  ?  Well,  it  is  all.  If  you  can  love  Christ,  you  can 
be  a  Christian.  If  you  cannot  love  Him,  no  goodness, 
no  righteousness,  however  perfect,  could  make  you  a 
Christian. 

Let  us  love  Him,  then  ;  and  in  order  that  we  may 
love  Him,  let  us  think  of  Him  more  as  He  is  presented 
to  us  in  the  Bible.  Read  the  simple  story  of  His  life. 
Think  of  Him  as  He  appeared  mingled  in  the  con- 
ditions of  this  life  on  earth.     Try  to  see  Him  as  His 


64  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFK 

friends  saw  Him.  Bead  the  Gospels  over  again,  as  if 
you  bad  never  read  them  in  your  life.  Eeraeraber  al- 
ways that  He  was  human.  Eemember  that  He  loved 
and  suffered  like  a  great,  tender-hearted  man,  as  He 
was.  And  when  you  think  of  Him  as  He  now  is, 
think  that  He  is  "  this  same  Jesus,"  not  changed,  but 
living  with  His  people  just  as  He  lived  with  them  in 
the  world.  Do  not  so  deify  Christ  as  to  rob  Him  of 
His  human  loveliness  and  tenderness.  Do  not  worship 
Him  with  such  awe  as  to  kill  your  love  for  Him.  He 
wants  to  come  near  to  us  and  be  familiar  with  us ;  we 
must  not  put  Him  far  off,  and  treat  Him  with  cere- 
mony, as  if  He  were  some  grand  emperor  of  heaven. 
Too  easily  we  neglect  the  human  history  of  Jesus.  We 
cultivate  our  consciences  and  neglect  our  hearts,  and 
religion  comes  to  be  a  careful,  holy,  painful  living, 
rather  than  a  free  and  happy  loving.  Eemember,  the 
question  that  Jesus  asks  of  us  is  not  whether  we  be- 
lieve in  His  divinity,  whether  we  will  worship  Him 
as  God,  or  whether  we  will  submit  to  His  authority ; 
but  the  question  is,  "  Lovest  thou  me  ? " 


THE  REAL  PRESENCE.  65 


THE  EEAL  PRESENCE. 

Hoicheit,  when  he,  the  Spirit  of  truth,  is  come,  he  iriU 
gxdde  you  into  all  truth  ;  for  he  shall  not  speak  of  him- 
self;  hut  whatsoever  he  shall  hear,  that  shall  he.  speak: 
and  lie  will  show  you  things  to  come. —  John.  xvi.  13, 

THE  life  of  God  in  the  souls  of  His  people,  like  the 
life  of  God  in  Nature,  is  secret  and  unsearchable, 
but  constant,  indestructible  and  eternal.  The  life  that 
animates,  develops,  and  matures  all  living  tilings  cannot 
be  confounded  with  the  forces  of  matter.  It  belongs  to 
the  spiritual  world.  It  is  the  life  of  God.  The  Chris- 
tian life  in  the  Church  of  Christ  cannot  be  confounded 
with  natural  affections,  with  results  of  education,  or 
with  the  natural  conscience.  It  is  something  different 
from  all  these.  It  is  the  life  of  God  in  the  soul  of  man. 
Its  source  is  in  the  constant  communion  of  God  with 
the  soul ;  "  I  live,  yet  not  I,  but  Christ  liveth  in  me." 
The  life  in  the  humblest  plant  that  grows  is  a  super- 
natural fact ;  it  cannot  be  explained  by  any  scientific 
analysis,  it  cannot  be  analyzed.  It  is  like  a  spirit, 
much  more  than  like  a  natural  force.  The  liie  of  re- 
li<-don  in  the  heart  is  in  another  sense  a  supernatural 
fact.  It  cannot  be  explained  by  mental  science.  The 
only  explanation  of  the  Christian  life  in  the  soul  is  in 

6 


66  GOD  IN  NATURE   AND   LIFE. 

the  communion  of  God  with  the  soul.  If  it  is  not  this, 
it  is  a  delusion.  The  Christian  life  of  the  Church  there- 
fore shares  in  the  permanence  and  power  and  eternity 
of  the  life  of  God.  Institutions,  governments,  civiliza- 
tions, founded  on  the  interests  and  ideas  of  men,  grow 
old  and  useless,  and  die :  but  the  Church  of  Christ, 
founded  on  the  life  of  God  and  nourished  by  it,  is 
indestructible  and  eternal.  "  God  is  in  the  midst  of 
her,"  as  the  soul  is  in  the  body,  as  the  king  is  in  his 
kingdom. 

This  indwelling  of  God  by  the  Spirit  in  the  souls  of 
His  people  is  the  ultimate  fact,  beyond  which  we  can- 
not go  and  short  of  which  we  must  not  stop,  when  we 
seek  for  the  real  sources  and  the  true  explanation  of 
religious  life  in  men.  The  teachings  of  Scripture  in 
regard  to  the  Holy  Spirit  signify  in  general  terms  this 
abiding  presence  of  God  in  the  Church  and  in  the  soul. 
And  as  this  indwelling  of  God  serves  many  purposes, 
it  is  described  in  Scripture  in  many  forms.  In  our 
text  the  indwelling  Spirit  of  God  is  called  the  Spirit  of 
Truth,  because  it  takes  the  things  of  Christ  and  shows 
them  unto  us  —  makes  the  truth  revealed  to  be  truth 
for  us  —  by  a  second  revelation  of  them  to  the  heart 
and  conscience  within  us.  This  indwelling  Spirit  of 
God  is  also  called  the  Comforter.  It  is  described  as 
regenerating  the  soul,  quickening  the  dead  with  spir- 
itual life,  sanctifying  the  believer  through  the  truth, 
and  making  intercession  in  us.  But  though  the  forms 
are  many,  the  Spirit  is  one.  It  is  the  one  constant 
presence  of  God  in  the  Church,  begetting,  nourishing, 
comforting,  enlightening  and  enlarging  the  spiritual 
life,    which    is    to   be    complete    only    when    it    has 


THE  REAL  PRESENCE.  67 

grown  to  the  measure  of  the  stature  of  the  fulness  of 
Clirist. 

It  is  impossible  to  interpret  the  Scriptures  which 
refer  to  this  truth  as  teaching  anything  less  than  the 
real  and  actual  presence  and  working  of  God  in  the 
souL  If  the  Scriptures  teach  that  God  is  a  living 
Person,  existing  anywhere  in  the  universe,  they  teach 
as  plainly  that  He  resides  in  certain  souls  of  men.  If 
we  ask  where  there  is  a  living  God,  who  sees  and 
knows  and  works,  is  there  any  other  place  where  it 
is  so  certain  that  He  is,  as  in  the  soul  of  His  child  ? 
Surely  as  much  is  said  in  Scripture  of  His  presence 
in  the  heart  of  the  believer,  and  in  the  Church,  as  of 
His  presence  in  heaven  itself.  If  God  is  in  heaven, 
He  certainly  is  in  the  pious  soul.  We  have  no  proof 
in  Scripture  of  the  presence  of  God  in  any  place, 
which  is  not  proof  of  His  actual  presence  and  actual 
working  in  the  hearts  of  His  people.  We  are  not  at 
liberty  so  to  interpret  the  Scriptures  that  relate  to 
the  Holy  Spirit  as  in  any  way  to  deny  or  weaken  the 
reality  of  this  indwelling.  God  is  in  His  people,  not 
because  they  hold  the  thought  of  Him  in  their  mind 
and  faith ;  not  because  the  idea  of  God  dwells  in 
their  memory  or  is  cherished  in  their  heart ;  but  be- 
cause He  is  in  their  soul,  as  their  soul  is  in  their 
body.  Such  surely  is  the  most  obvious  and  simple 
interpretation  of  such  Scriptures  as  these :  "  Know  ye 
not  that  your  bodies  are  the  temples  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  ? "  "  As  God  hath  said,  I  will  dwell  in  them  and 
walk  in  them."  "For  He  dwelleth  with  you,  and 
shall  be  in  you."  To  weaken  this  great  fact  by  timid 
or  qualified    interpretations    is   to   weaken    the   very 


68  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND   LIFE. 

foundations  of  the  kingdom  of  God.  To  call  the  in- 
dwelling of  God  in  His  people  a  mere  subjective  fact, 
the  mere  dwelling  of  the  thought  of  God  in  their 
hearts,  is  a  kind  of  sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost,  a 
denying  of  the  reality  of  a  Holy  Spirit  as  taught  in 
Scripture. 

IVIoreover,  this  real  and  literal  interpretation  of  the 
presence  of  God  in  the  soul  is  the  most  rational,  as  it 
is  the  most  scriptural.  It  is  more  rational  and  scien- 
tific to  believe  that  the  influence  which  God  exerts 
upon  men  is  exerted  by  direct  contact  and  immediate 
presence  than  by  indirect  methods.  It  is  more  rational 
to  believe  that  the  infinite  God  is  in  direct  connection 
with  all  that  He  has  created,  than  to  believe  that  His 
presence  is  withdrawn  from  any  part  of  His  universe. 
The  progress  of  thought  and  knowledge  may  make  our 
interpretations  of  certain  Scriptures  erroneous  or  false, 
and  we  may  slowly  come  to  modify  the  existing  form 
of  certain  doctrines ;  but  the  one  great  Christian  truth 
which  is  most  unassailable,  to  which  the  progress  of 
scientific  thought  will  only  give  strength,  is  the  truth  of 
a  divine  presence,  an  indwelling  of  God  in  the  soul  that 
apprehends  Him  and  lives  in  communion  with  Him. 
For  the  facts  of  a  Christian  life,  —  the  deep  apprehension 
of  God's  existence  and  character,  the  transformation  of 
moral  life  in  man,  the  pure  aspirations  of  faith  and  hope 
and  love  toward  Him,  —  facts  which  no  earthly  force 
can  shake,  and  which  carry  the  soul  as  a  conqueror 
through  the  trials  of  life  and  the  glooms  of  death, — 
for  these  facts  no  adequate  cause  can  be  found,  save  in 
an  actual  connection  of  God  with  the  soul. 

We  have,  then,  at  the  basis  of  religion  in  the  hearts 


THE  REAL  PRESENCE.  69 

of  men  this  great  fact,  the  presence  and  work  of  God  iu 
tlie  heart.  Tliis  is  the  true  foundation  of  religion.  On 
this  fact  it  rests,  from  this  fountain  it  flows,  by  this 
force  it  is  maintained.  Here  we  rest.  The  permanence 
and  perfecting  of  our  own  spiritual  life  is  assured  by 
the  divine  life  and  power  by  which  it  is  begotten  and 
maintained.  Our  confidence  in  the  safety  of  religion 
against  all  attacks,  and  in  its  final  conquest  of  all 
mankind,  rests  on  that  actual  presence  and  work  of 
God  in  the  souls  of  men. 

This  great  fact  of  the  actual  presence  of  God  in  the 
hearts  of  His  people  explains  the  origin  of  the  Christian 
life  iu  the  soul  of  any  individual.  A  man  becomes  a 
Christian  only  by  a  true  and  real  work  of  God  done  in 
his  soul.  This  work  is  described  by  our  Lord  as  a 
regeneration,  a  being  born  again.  It  is  the  beginning 
of  a  new  life,  —  a  life  new  not  only  in  its  habits  and 
purposes,  but  also  in  its  nature,  a  new  kind  of  life, 
a  spiritual,  immortal,  divine  life.  A  man,  from  having 
been  a  living  soul,  becomes  alive  unto  God,  deeply  con- 
scious of  Him.  The  world,  which  before  contained  for 
him  only  natural  elements,  becomes  filled  with  the 
presence  of  God.  In  the  solitary  places  where  he  was 
alone  he  now  walks  with  God.  Over  all  things,  just 
behind  all  things,  in  all  things,  he  sees  and  feels  this 
divine  presence  which  fills  the  world.  All  things  are 
new,  and  all  things  are  of  God.  It  is  as  if  now  for  the 
first  time  he  had  become  immortal,  and  related  to  God. 
There  is  added  to  the  boundaries  and  interests  of  his 
worldly  life  a  whole  new  world,  a  world  of  divine  rela- 
tions, of  eternal  existence,  and  of  immortal  enjoyments. 
His  life  is  changed  by  this  immense  addition  to  it  of 


70  GOD   IN   NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

the  love  of  God  and  an  eternal  life.  This  new,  this 
Christian  life  in  his  soul  has  sprung  up  there  because 
God  has  come  into  his  heart  and  entered  into  com- 
munion with  him.  He  who  made  the  man's  soul  for 
Himself  has  come  to  take  real  possession  of  it.  He 
who  made  him  a  spirit  has  awakened  in  him  the  true 
life  of  an  immortal  spirit.  It  is  God  who  has  touched 
him.     It  is  God  who  has  changed  his  heart. 

But  how  did  He  do  it  ?  "Was  it  by  an  act  of  power 
put  forth  like  a  physical  force  upon  the  substance  of  his 
soul  ?  Was  the  man's  soul  clay  and  God  the  potter, 
fashioning  it  anew  by  simple  power;  or  did  He  do 
His  work  of  mercy  through  the  man's  own  conscience 
and  moral  nature  ?  We  believe  that  it  was  through 
the  reason  andj  conscience  of  the  man  himself  that 
God  wrought  the  great  and  blessed  change.  God 
comes  into  our  souls  as  a  man  goes  into  his  house  ;  but 
when  He  seeks  to  influence  us,  it  is  by  showing  truth 
to  our  consciences  and  to  our  hearts  with  a  clearness 
and  force  that  the  soul  cannot  resist,  —  as  the  Lord 
said  of  the  Spirit,  "He  shall  take  of  mine,  and  shall 
show  it  unto  you."  It  is  as  if  God  said,  when  He  came 
to  a  soul,  "  Come,  now,  let  us  reason  together."  It  is 
through  the  moral  reason,  the  conscience,  that  He 
addresses  the  soul,  and  influences  and  changes  and 
recjenerates  it.  In  doing  this  He  uses  all  the  truth 
that  tlie  man  has  heard  or  knows,  taking  what  lie  has 
heard  and  remembered  and  showing  it  with  divine 
power  to  his  conscience.  It  is  therefore  the  work  of 
the  Church  to  preach  to  men  those  truths  which  God 
can  use  to  make  them  penitent,  believing,  and  willing 
to  forsake  all  and  follow  Christ.    It  is  to  men  that  we 


THE  REAL  PRESENCE.  71 

preach,  but  it  is  also  for  God.  We  must  preach  such 
truths  as  the  Spirit  can  take  to  show  them  for  His 
purpose  to  the  soul.  We  preach,  like  many  Indian 
missionaries,  through  an  interpreter  ;  but  the  interpreter 
is  God  Himself.  This  indwelling  Spirit  of  God,  through 
whom  alone  the  truth  can  reach  the  heart  and  con- 
science, shall  not  speak  of  Himself,  the  Saviour  says, 
but  what  He  shall  hear,  that  shall  He  speak.  The 
Spirit  will  not  teach  a  man  what  he  has  not  been 
taught.  He  takes  the  truth  that  has  been  taught  al- 
ready, and  "  shows  "  that  in  demonstration  of  the  Spirit 
and  with  power. 

To  a  soul  already  regenerated,  and  living  unto  God, 
all  truths  on  all  themes  are  useful,  if  they  are  presented 
to  it  as  divine  truth,  —  as  illustrations  of  the  greater 
truths  of  the  Gospel  of  salvation ;  but  how  valueless 
by  themselves !  The  themes  of  natural  religion,  of 
God  in  Nature,  are,  with  Christian  doctrine,  appropriate 
teachings  to  a  soul  already  taught  the  first  great  prin- 
ciples of  religion  by  the  Spirit  of  God  ;  but  the  Chris- 
tian life  is  not  awakened  by  such  truths.  In  all  that 
the  Bible  teaches,  —  in  all  the  wide  world,  —  what 
means  are  there  by  which  a  soul  can  be  made  alive 
unto  God  ?  The  truths  by  which  God  works  to  regene- 
rate a  soul  are  the  great  truths  of  human  sinfulness  and 
exposure  to  God's  displeasure,  a  man's  utter  helj)less- 
ness  under  the  terrible  condemnation  that  lies  upon  his 
character,  and  the  great,  the  infinite  love  of  God  which 
through  Christ  is  assured  to  the  penitent  sinner.  There 
are  no  truths  of  which  the  Church  and  its  ministry 
need  clear  and  true  ideas  as  they  need  them  of  the 
true  nature  of  human  depravity  and  the  true  method 


72  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

of  a  soul's  reconciliation  with  God.  It  is  these  that 
should  be  most  carefully  studied,  —  not  with  reference 
to  logical  systems  alone,  but  with  reference  to  actual 
human  experience,  and  to  the  purpose  of  saving  souls 
now  and  at  once. 

It  is  the  severest  criticism  that  can  be  passed  upon 
those  churches  which  have  parted  off  from  the  orthodox 
faith,  that  their  teachings  have  so  generally  failed  to 
awaken  any  Christian  life.  They  cultivate  a  religion 
without  regeneration,  without  repentance,  without  per- 
sonal communion  with  God,  without  zeal  for  the  sal- 
vation of  men.  The  experience  of  sinfulness  and 
alienation  from  God  is  the  basis  and  beginning  of 
Christian  life ;  and  this  experience  is  awakened  only  by 
the  earnest  presentation  of  that  sinfulness  and  aliena- 
tion. To  talk  of  God's  love  for  men,  without  setting 
forth  men's  criminality  and  alienation  from  Him,  is 
only  to  quiet  the  conscience  when  it  should  be  aroused, 
to  sanction  in  a  manner  the  life  of  irreligion  by  taking 
away  from  it  all  real  danger  and  condemnation.  It  is 
by  the  truth  of  man's  sinfulness  that  God  will  show  a 
man  his  sins.  And  as  the  indwelling  Spirit  will  not 
speak  of  Himself,  but  will  speak  only  what  He  shall 
hear,  it  is  essential  that  the  great  truth  of  man's  sin 
and  danger  should  be  distinctly  and  constantly  heard 
in  the  teachings  of  the  Church. 

This  presence  and  work  of  God  in  the  souls  of  His 
people  serves,  moreover,  as  a  guidance  for  them  when 
they  are  placed  in  doubt  between  error  and  truth. 
"  When  He,  the  Spirit  of  truth,  is  come.  He  shall  guide 
you  into  all  truth."  It  may  be  tliat  something  special 
to  the  Apostles  was  intended  in  this  promise  ;   and  a 


THE  REAL  PRESENCE.  73 

special  guiding  inspiration  was  certainly  given  to  these 
first  teachers  of  the  doctrine  of  Christ.  But  surely,  too, 
something  of  this  guidance  into  all  truth  is  given  to  all 
souls  in  which  God  the  Spirit  resides.  As  it  is  God  in 
the  heart  who  leads  the  soul  at  first  into  the  truth  of 
its  own  sinfulness,  into  the  truth  of  its  dependence  and 
responsibility,  and  into  the  truth  of  reconciliation  with 
God  without  works  of  merit  and  simply  through  the 
pardoning  mercy  of  God  revealed  in  Christ,  so  it  is  the 
same  great  and  gracious  teacher  in  the  heart  who  leads 
the  soul  into  other  truths,  and  into  discoveries  of  truth 
ever  clearer  and  broader  as  time  goes  on.  These  first 
truths  are  but  primary  lessons  in  a  complete  education ; 
and  He  who  taught  us  the  first  teaches  us  all  the  rest, 
until  all  that  God  has  taught  is  converted  into  expe- 
rience in  our  hearts.  Every  new  discovery  of  truth 
that  we  make  is  made  to  us  by  that  same  Spirit  of  God 
who  showed  us  at  first  the  truth  through  which  we 
were  reconciled  to  Him. 

This  promise  of  inward  teaching  our  Lord  limits, 
however,  by  the  following  words  :  "  For  He  shall  not 
speak  of  Himself;  but  whatsoever  He  shall  hear,  that 
shall  He  speak."  The  indwelling  Spirit  is  not  a  guide 
who  acts  in  independence  of  what  God  has  spoken  by 
the  prophets  and  by  His  Son.  That  Spirit  is  the  same 
God  who  spoke  in  them ;  and  He  cannot  contradict 
Himself.  We  cannot  suppose  that  the  Spirit  of  God  is 
any  guide  for  us  independently  of  His  revealed  Word. 
The  Spirit  speaks  only  what  He  hears  ;  He  teaches  in 
the  inmost  secret  soul  what  is  spoken  in  the  outer 
courts  of  the  senses  and  the  intellect ;  He  takes  the 
things  of  Christ  and  shows  them  unto  us.     This  limita- 


74  V  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

tion  of  the  promise,  therefore,  will  not  allow  us  to  dis- 
pense with  the  word,  the  spoken  word  of  God.  The 
Quaker,  the  enthusiast,  the  Separatist,  believe  that  the 
indwelling  Spirit  of  God  makes  new  revelations,  speaks 
of  Himself,  independently  of  the  words  of  Christ,  and 
beyond  them.  But  the  inward  light  shows  only  the 
same  truth  that  has  been  revealed.  Whatever  is  beyond 
the  teachings  of  Jesus  can  have  no  authority  for  His 
followers. 

A  man's  soul  is  not,  alone,  the  last  authority  for  his 
opinions  and  belief  But  what  a  soul  in  true  communion 
with  God  sees,  in  studying  the  words  of  Jesus,  is  truly 
seen.  It  is  a  necessary  condition  of  our  attaining  to 
truth,  that  our  souls  should  be  in  communion  with  God, 
—  or,  in  other  words,  that  God  the  Spirit  should  guide 
us  into  truth.  We  also  cannot  speak  of  ourselves  with- 
out first  consulting  God.  What  He  shows  to  us  in 
that  communion  with  Him  we  can  show  to  men,  — 
and  we  can  really  show  them  no  more.  We  have  gone 
as  far  into  the  truth  as  the  indwelling  Spirit  of  God  has 
led  us,  —  and  with  all  our  education,  we  have  gone  no 
farther.  We  know  as  much  of  God  and  His  Gospel  as 
we  have  learned  by  our  real  communion  with  God  Him- 
self and  His  with  us ;  and  we  really  know  no  more. 

We  have,  then,  at  the  basis  of  religion  in  the  souls  of 
men  this  great  and  unspeakably  precious  fact,  of  the 
real  presence  and  work  of  God  in  the  heart.  This  is 
our  real  dependence  ;  it  is  the  one  fact  which  alone 
makes  it  possible  that  souls  can  be  saved.  This  truth, 
therefore,  must  govern  us  in  the  employment  of  all 
means  that  we  use  to  promote  religion  in  the  world. 
We  cannot  depend  upon  the  omnipotence  of  the  Spirit 


THE  REAL  PRESENCE.  75 

ill  the  hearts  of  men  without  proper  means,  for  He  shall 
not  speak  of  Himself,  but  what  He  shall  hear,  that  shall 
He  speak.  It  is  when  the  truth  is  heard  in  the  teachings 
of  the  Church,  that  He  speaks  in  the  heart,  like  a  voice 
whispering  behind  us,  "This  is  the  way,  walk  ye  in  it;" 
and  our  only  legitimate  work  as  servants  of  God  is  to 
show  to  men  those  truths  by  which  the  religious  life  is 
awakened  and  intensified.  If  the  plain,  saving  truths 
of  the  Gospel,  earnestly  and  lovingly  preached,  taken 
up  and  shown  by  the  indwelling  Spirit,  are  not  enough 
to  spread  religion  in  the  world  and  save  men,  then  men 
cannot  be  saved  and  religion  cannot  be  spread  in  the 
world.  We  complain  that  churches  are  not  filled  and 
people  are  not  reached  by  the  means  of  grace.  How  shall 
they  be  reached,  and  how  shall  the  churches  be  fiUed  ? 
If  we  condescend  to  worldly  acts,  if  we  substitute  for 
the  Gospel  an  entertaining  discourse,  if  we  appeal  to 
the  curiosity  of  men,  or  seek  to  draw  them  by  worldly 
motives  of  any  kind,  we  may  gain  a  temporary  social  suc- 
cess ;  but  it  is  our  success,  not  that  of  religion  or  the  true 
cause  of  Christ.  The  plain,  faithful  preaching  of  man' s 
sinfulness  and  salvation  by  Christ  is  the  only  means  we 
can  employ  to  promote  religion.  If  this  fails,  the  cause 
is  lost.  The  fantastic  tricks  of  sensational  preaching 
certainly  will  not  save  it.  But  we  complain  that  these 
gi-eat  truths  are  often  preached,  and  yet  without  apparent 
usefulness.  And  why  ?  There  may  be  many  reasons. 
They  may  be  preached  merely  in  set  theological  form, 
or  repeated  as  a  lesson  learned  in  school,  or  simply 
taught  and  proved  as  doctrines  ;  and  all  such  preaching 
may  well  serve  only  to  hide  the  truth  itself.  These 
truths,  which  are  our  only  means  of  influencing  men 


76  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

religiously,  should  be  studied  ou  the  practical  side, 
that  we  may  really  influence  men  ;  and  they  should  be 
preached,  not  mainly  in  the  current  forms  of  expres- 
sion, but  in  such  original  forms  as  earnest  original  study 
of  them  may  furnish  to  our  minds.  We  are  too  apt 
to  think  that  our  attainments  —  the  variety  of  our 
thought,  and  the  fulness  of  our  illustrations  —  are  our 
means  of  influencing  men.  But  our  real  and  only  effec- 
tive means  are  the  depth  of  our  apprehension  of  human 
sinfulness,  the  clearness  of  our  conception  of  the  char- 
acter of  God  in  holiness  and  saving  mercy,  and  the 
degree  of  our  sympathy  with  souls  in  their  religious 
needs.  If  we  spent  the  time  that  we  give  to  the  study 
of  side  issues  in  studying  how  to  present  to  men  more 
clearly,  more  originally,  more  forcibly,  their  alienation 
from  God,  their  need  of  His  mercy,  and  the  way  of 
peace  with  Him,  we  should  never  labor  in  vain.  We 
should  fill  our  churches,  we  should  reach  the  greater 
number,  we  should  indeed  be  workers  together  with 
God. 

Resting  upon  the  great  fact  of  God's  real  presence  in 
the  soul  and  in  the  Church,  having  this  for  our  ground 
of  confidence,  we  can  work  without  anxiety  or  distrust. 
The  Christian  vine,  with  its  roots  striking  into  the  life 
of  God,  cannot  be  withered  by  the  poisoned  air  of  the 
world.  It  will  grow  and  spread  until  it  fills  the  earth, 
and  every  living  branch  shall  blossom  in  tlie  beauty  of 
holiness,  and  bear  fruit  unto  everlasting  life. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  A  SOUL.  T7 


THE  HISTORY    OF   A   SOUL. 

Verily  I  say  unto  you,  Whosoever  shall  not  receive  the 
kingdom  of  God  as  a  little  child,  shall  in  no  wise  enter 
therein.  —  Luke  xviii.  17. 

But  grow  in  grace,  and  in  the  knowledge  of  our  Lord  and 
Saviour  Jesus  Christ.  —  2  Peter  iii.  18. 

Till  we  all  come,  in  the  unity  of  the  faith,  and  of  the 
knowledge  of  the  Son  of  God,  unto  a  perfect  man,  unto  the 
measure  of  the  stature  of  the  fulness  of  Christ. —  Ephesians 
iv.  13. 

THESE  passages  represent  the  beginning,  the  prog- 
ress, and  the  final  attainment  of  every  redeemed 
soul.  They  outline  its  whole  history.  They  clearly 
express  all  the  interest  and  importance  that  there  is 
in  any  human  life  beyond  the  interest  and  importance 
of  daily  events  and  experiences.  They  contain  the 
substance  of  all  Christian  thought,  the  inspiration  of 
all  Christian  energy  and  enterprise,  and  the  matter  of 
every  true  Christian  ministry.  They  mark  the  three 
periods  into  which  the  whole  vast  history  of  a  redeemed 
soul  is  divided. 

The  history  of  a  soul  from  the  beginning  of  its 
existence  through  the  whole  course  of  its  duration 
could  be  exceeded  in  interest  and  importance  only  by 
one  other  history,  —  the  history  of  God.     Around  the 


78  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

course  of  a  soul's  existence  gathers  all  that  is  good 
and  great  and  beautiful  in  the  universe,  and  all  that  is 
tragic  and  awful  hangs  over  its  way  or  opens  beneath 
its  feet.  Into  its  experience  must  enter  at  some  time 
all  that  has  power  to  set  in  vibration  the  infinite 
sensibilities  of  pleasure  or  of  pain.  It  must  convert 
the  universe  into  an  experience  of  its  own,  until  it 
possesses  in  itself,  in  its  own  thought  and  feeling,  all 
that  is  true  and  beautiful  and  good  in  the  vast  creation 
of  God,  until  all  things  that  exist  in  the  worlds  of  light 
or  worlds  of  darkness  may  be  found  in  the  soul  as  a 
knowledge,  and  as  a  joy  or  as  a  pain.  For  "  all  things 
are  yours,"  —  yours  to  be  possessed,  to  be  lived  through 
and  experienced.  The  history  of  a  soul  would  be  not 
only  the  history  of  the  universe,  but,  far  more,  of  the 
conversion  of  the  universe  into  human  life,  human 
happiness  or  suffering. 

I  must  see  myself  as  a  soul.  That  is  all  there  is  of 
me,  or  of  you,  that  is  not  accidental  and  perishable.  I 
must  think  of  my  life.  I  can  put  off  all  the  outer 
relations  of  my  life,  stand  alone  on  some  solitary  rock 
of  the  sea,  and  be  my  whole  self  there.  My  relations 
to  men  and  to  the  earth  are  but  the  outer  garments, 
loosely  worn.  I  can  put  off  this  body  whole,  with  all 
its  organs  and  sensibilities ;  it  can  lie  down  apart  from 
me.  It  is  not  I ;  but  wrapped  up  within  this  body, 
as  in  a  swaddling-band,  is  the  living  child,  the  young 
immortal,  beginning  here  in  small  sensations,  in  shallow 
pains  and  pleasures,  a  life  that  has  no  bound  in  time  or 
space,  a  life  into  which  must  come  the  full  force  of  all 
that  is  true  and  good,  or  of  all  that  is  evil  and  awful. 
You  are  a  soul  with  this  long  great  life  to  live,  with  all 


THE  HISTORY  OF  A  SOUL.  79 

this  vast  experience  awaiting  you.  This  life  is  so  small 
a  part  of  our  whole  living !  Whatever  his  position,  a 
man  is  here  so  small  a  part  of  his  whole  self ;  he  is  so 
falsely  seen,  when  regarded  only  in  his  earthly  character 
and  position !  A  man  is  truly  seen  only  when  he  is 
seen  with  his  hand  in  God's  hand,  with  the  solemn 
heavens  bowed  around  him,  and  the  solemn  eternity 
filled  with  rolling  mists  lying  before  him,  while  he 
walks  thinking  and  ignorantly  talking  of  the  things 
close  around  him. 

Our  life  in  this  stage  of  it  is  but  partly  spiritual  or 
intellectual,  and  partly  sensuous  and  material.  We  are 
occupied  with  bodily  employments,  and  filled  with  the 
sensations  of  physical  pain  or  pleasure ;  but  all  this  is 
temporary,  and  passes  away  with  the  body  to  the  grave. 
The  life  before  us  is  an  intellectual  life,  a  life  of  thought 
and  mental  emotion :  the  pains  are  the  sufferings  of  the 
mind,  the  pleasures  are  the  pleasures  of  the  mind  and 
heart.  In  this  life  the  realities,  the  substances,  are  the 
rocks,  the  soil,  the  mountains,  the  sea,  the  climate,  the 
light,  and  the  darkness.  In  that  life  the  realities  are 
truths,  and  the  soul's  dealings  with  these  are  like 
the  body's  relations  to  the  elements  of  Nature.  As 
the  body  lives  in  matter  here,  the  soul  lives  in  truth 
there:  all  experience,  sensation,  pain,  and  pleasure, 
come  there  from  truth,  and  its  power  on  the  mind. 

The  various  texts  that  I  have  read  as  guides  to  our 
meditation  sliow  three  stages  in  this  great  life  of  the 
soul,  —  a  childhood  of  subjection,  a  youth  of  growth,  a 
maturity  of  the  perfect  man. 

As  we  can  never  think  at  all  justly  of  a  man  except 
when  we  think  of  him  as  a  soul,  with  a  vast  and  end- 


80  GOD   IN  NATURE   AND  LIFE. 

less  life,  so  we  can  never  judge  rightly  of  the  life  of  a 
soul  unless  we  think  of  it  as  divided  into  these  three 
periods,  and  understand  the  law  that  applies  to  each. 
God  the  Father  was  first  revealed  to  men.  For  four 
thousand  years  He  was  known  only  in  this  First  Person 
of  His  nature.  Under  this  dispensation  men  were 
children,  and  the  law  was  their  schoolmaster.  All 
was  authority  on  God's  part,  and  all  was  subjection, 
submission,  on  man's  part.  Then  God  was  revealed  as 
the  Son,  the  brother  and  fellow  of  man's  soul,  bringinsr 
in  another  dispensation,  under  which  a  man's  soul  is  no 
longer  simply  commanded  by  authority,  but  invited 
and  left  free.  The  soul  is  no  longer  treated  as  a  child, 
but  the  Son  makes  us  free  indeed,  —  as  if  the  soul  had 
attained  its  majority  and  must  take  the  responsibility 
of  freedom.  It  must  think,  believe,  and  act  for  itself. 
Two  thousand  years  of  this  dispensation  have  passed 
away.  We  know  not  the  day  or  the  hour  when  it  will 
end,  but  the  end  will  come ;  and  then  God  the  Spirit 
will  bring  in  tlie  last  dispensation  of  final  and  perfect 
glory.  Then  the  souls  of  all  men  will  live  in  the 
spiritual  world  the  life  of  souls  no  longer  cumbered 
with  their  clay,  encompassed  with  the  ultimate  realities 
which  Nature  and  sense  conceal  from  us  here.  In  that 
spiritual  world  the  true  soul  will  find  the  maturity  of 
its  perfection.  It  is  true  that  these  great  periods  of  the 
race  are  not  absolutely  distinct  and  separate,  as  if  one 
king  died  and  another  succeeded.  The  Father,  the  Son, 
and  the  Spirit  are  in  all  dispensations,  and  there  is 
something  of  subjection,  of  freedom,  and  of  maturity 
for  men  in  each.  Yet  what  is  true  of  the  course  of 
the  race   is   true  of  the   course  of  every  single   soul. 


THE   HISTORY  OF  A   SOUL.  81 

There  is  a  period  when  all  is  authority  on  God's  part 
and  all  submission  for  the  soul;  a  period  when  the  soul 
becomes  free,  and  thinks  and  believes  or  denies  for 
itself;  and  a  period  when  each  soul  attains  its  own 
maturity  of  perfect  manhood.  And  in  the  perfect, 
final  state  the  authority  of  the  Father,  tlie  fellowship 
of  the  Son,  and  the  life  of  the  Spirit  will  all  mingle  in 
one  perfect  life,  and  God,  the  whole  God,  the  triune 
God,  will  be  all  in  all. 

Let  us  then  endeavor  to  gain  some  true  idea  of  the 
course  and  the  stages  appointed  for  the  vast  and  endless 
life  of  our  souls,  the  one  and  only  object  of  which  is  to 
bring  us  at  length  to  the  perfect  life  of  perfect  souls  in 
growing  knowledge  and  greatening  joy  forever. 

1.  The  first  stage  or  period  in  the  life  of  a  soul  to  be 
redeemed  and  blessed  forever  is  described  in  the  first  text : 
"  Verily  I  say  unto  you,  whosoever  shall  not  receive  the 
kingdom  of  God  as  a  little  child,  shall  in  no  wise  enter 
therein."  The  eternal  life  is  begun  in  a  childlike  sub- 
jection of  our  minds  and  wills  to  what  is  required  of  us, 
and  a  childlike  faith  in  what  is  told  us.  This  subjec- 
tion of  opinion,  of  will  and  of  life,  to  an  authority  out- 
side of  ourselves,  is  the  natural  law  of  childhood.  I 
mean  that  it  is  as  much  the  law  of  the  child's  nature 
thus  to  trust  and  submit,  as  it  is  the  law  of  his  condi- 
tion to  require  it  of  him.  God  has  given  the  child  a 
nature  to  which  submission  to  authority,  and  acceptance 
of  what  is  told  it,  is  normal.  So  God  has  given  us  all 
a  nature  to  which  religious  submission  and  trust  are 
normal.  It  is  natural  to  a  man  to  submit  to  divine 
authority,  in  whatever  form  it  is  presented  to  him. 
And  because  it  is  natural  to   submit  our  minds  and 

6 


82  GOD   IN  NATURE   AND  LIFE. 

wills  before  we  are  competent  to  guide  ourselves,  it  is 
right  for  us  to  do  it,  and  to  expect  it  of  others.  The 
child's  ignorance  and  incompetency  form  a  sufficient 
reason  for  its  submission  of  its  own  thoughts  and  will 
to  the  authority  of  parents  and  society  without  question 
or  resistance.  The  child  is  surrounded  by  those  who 
are  older,  wiser  by  study  and  experience,  than  itself, 
and  by  the  law  of  nature  the  wisdom  and  experience  of 
others  are  its  guide  during  all  the  period  of  childhood. 
It  is  a  foolish  and  monstrous  presumption  for  a  child  to 
reject  the  control  of  its  superiors,  and  set  up  its  own 
wisdom  and  will  as  sufficient.  So  through  a  large  por- 
tion of  our  Christian  life,  our  ignorance,  our  incompe- 
tency to  know  and  judge  religious  truth  for  ourselves, 
is  a  sufficient  reason  for  accepting  heartily  the  doctrines 
of  the  Christian  Church,  and  submitting  ourselves  with- 
out question  or  resistance  to  the  common  faith.  We 
have  come  into  the  world,  where  the  lifelong  studies  of 
wise  men,  and  the  lifelong  faith  of  tlie  best  men,  have 
sanctioned  these  ideas  and  doctrines.  It  is  natural 
and  right  and  necessary,  that  in  our  inexperience  and 
ignorance  we  should  accept  them  from  our  superiors  and 
live  in  them,  submitting  our  minds  and  judgments  to 
them.  It  is  the  law  of  our  childhood  that  we  should 
take  our  ideas  from  those  who  are  older  and  wiser 
than  we. 

This  is  the  condition  of  the  vast  majority  of  Chris- 
tians. Like  children  they  have  entered  the  kingdom  of 
God  by  believing  what  the  Christian  world  lias  told 
them,  and  doing  more  or  less  completely  what  the 
Christian  world  has  required  of  them ;  never  having 
investigated  the  proofs  for  and  against  the  Bible  and 


THE   HISTORY  OF  A  SOUL.  88 

the  common  doctrine,  and  content  to  live  in  truths 
which  the  Christian  consciousness  has  always  held  and 
which  the  apostles  and  martyrs  of  Christ  and  the 
millions  of  good  men  have  lived  and  died  in.  This  is 
right,  because  it  is  natural  and  necessary.  Few  of  us 
are  yet  so  far  advanced  as  to  be  able  or  entitled  to  trust 
the  judgment  of  our  own  minds  against  the  authority  of 
the  general  belief  of  centuries.  If  it  is  ever  brou";ht  as 
a  reproach  against  Christians  that  their  faith  in  Chris- 
tianity is  an  unthinking,  unreasoning  faith,  there  is 
no  force  in  the  reproach.  The  faith  of  good  men  in  all 
ages  is  a  better  authority  for  their  belief  than  the 
reasonings  of  a  mind  narrow  in  its  knowledge  and 
immature  in  its  capacities,  as  the  vast  majority  of  our 
minds  still  are.  And  even  the  humblest  Christian,  who 
thinks  aud  knows  the  least  about  what  he  believes,  has 
this  great  and  sufficient  proof  of  his  faith,  that  he 
knows  by  experience  that  the  Christian  life  is  right  and 
true.  If  it  shall  hereafter  be  found  that  many  of  his 
ideas  are  false,  still  he  knows  it  can  never  be  found 
that  to  serve  God  and  follow  Christ  is  not  a  true  and 
blessed  life.  We  really  are  children ;  our  souls  are 
in  their  childhood ;  we  cannot  act  otherwise  than  as 
children.  We  cannot  enter  the  kingdom  of  God  except 
as  children,  by  believing  what  the  Bible  tells  us,  and 
obeying  what  it  requires  of  us.  We  must  submit  our 
minds,  our  opinions,  our  wills,  to  it,  for  the  reason  that 
we  know  it  to  be  right.  God  ought  to  be  worshipped, 
loved,  and  obeyed,  and  that  is  what  the  Bible  and  the 
Christian  world  require  of  us.  Under  all  differences  of 
opinion  about  particular  doctrines,  the  reality  and  truth 
of  religion  remain  the  same. 


8i  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

I  do,  therefore,  require  of  myself  and  of  every  other 
man  to  accept  the  religion  of  Jesus.  If  we  cannot 
prove  all  its  doctrines,  neither  are  we  wise  enough,  in 
the  childhood  of  our  immortality,  to  set  up  our  own 
souls  as  judges  of  truth  against  the  faith  of  ages,  the 
teachings  of  time,  and  of  such  a  One  as  Christ.  Let  us 
come  as  children  to  the  Christian  life,  believing  what 
Christ  has  told  us,  and  obeying  what  He  requires.  Have 
you  doubts  and  difficulties  ?  Give  them  up  to  Him. 
Are  you  old  enough,  do  you  know  enough,  is  your  soul 
grown  enough,  to  doubt  the  reality  and  necessity  of 
religion  ?  Is  it  not  right  and  wise  and  necessary  to 
live  as  Christ  requires  ?  Is  not  God  our  Father  ?  Why 
should  not  you  as  a  child  give  up  to  Him  the  control  of 
your  life  ?  You  know  nothing  of  the  Christian  life  by 
experience  ;  you  must  begin  it  as  a  child.  How  out  of 
his  place  is  one  who  stands  up  to  reason  and  argue 
against  God,  trying  to  show  cause  why  he  should  not 
obey  and  serve  Him!  What  is  my  place,  what  is  your 
place,  but  as  a  child  in  utter  subjection  to  Him,  the 
Father  of  our  spirits  ?  The  more  childlike  and  simple 
we  are  in  this  submission,  the  nobler  and  truer  do  we 
become  in  our  whole  character. 

2.  But  though  the  childhood  of  our  immortal  life 
may  last  long,  it  does  not  last  always.  Sooner  or  later 
there  comes  to  every  soul  the  second  stage  of  its  end- 
less course,  namely,  the  period  described  by  the  second 
text :  "  But  grow  in  grace,  and  in  the  knowledge  of  our 
Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ."  In  the  course  and 
growth  of  a  soul's  life  there  comes  a  time  when  it  seeks 
the  satisfaction  of  a  personal  knowledge ;  when  it  is  a 
child  no  longer,  and  cannot  be  satisfied  to  accept  what 


THE   HISTORY  OF  A   SOUL,  85 

is  told  it  and  stop  at  that,  but  must  know  for  itself. 
As  a  child,  a  human  being  receives  ideas  on  trust,  —  he 
does  not  know,  he  has  not  made  them  his  own  by  ex- 
perience of  their  truth.  He  has  heard  of  something, 
but  it  is  at  a  distance :  he  must  go  where  it  is,  see  it 
for  himself,  and  get  it  for  his  own.  Our  ideas  of  many 
things  are  only  like  I'aint  rumors  or  imperfect  reports 
of  things  far  off,  —  the  things  eternal  and  invisible. 
There  is  necessarily  great  imperfection  in  our  experi- 
ence of  any  truth  or  fact  of  which  we  have  only  heard. 
In  due  time  this  imperfection  and  uncertainty  becomes 
a  pain :  the  soul  requires  to  know.  From  this  time 
begins  the  period  of  the  soul's  growth.  It  is  under  a 
new  law,  which  requires  it  to  prove  all  things,  and  by 
proving  them  to  make  them  its  own  and  get  the  good  of 
them.  Some  souls  come  to  this  period  in  this  world, 
and  others  remain  under  the  law  of  childhood's  faith 
and  trust  until  they  reach  their  majority  in  the  future 
world.  The  Catholic  Church  seeks  with  all  its  vast 
power  to  prevent  men's  souls  from  ever  coming  to  this 
period  of  question  and  personal  inquiry.  The  Protes- 
tant Church  has  in  a  measure  hastened  this  period  in 
many  souls,  by  its  doctrine  of  private  judgment  on  the 
meaning  of  Scripture,  though  it  has  never  intended  to 
encourage  any  liberty  of  doubt  in  regard  to  the  Bible 
itself  But  sooner  or  later  to  every  soul  in  its  endless 
course  will  come  the  time  when  it  can  no  longer  live  by 
faith,  but  must  know  that  which  it  believes  ;  because 
only  by  so  knowing  for  itself  can  a  soul  ever  get  the 
full  blessing  of  the  great  facts  of  life  and  the  universe. 
When  we  have  believed  in  God,  then  some  time  we 
must  see  Him.     When  we  have  through  the  darkness 


86  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

followed  trustingly  the  voice  of  Christ,  it  will  be  neces- 
sary for  us  to  see  His  face,  —  and  we  shall  see  it.  The 
time  Cometh  when  He  will  no  more  speak  to  us  in 
parables,  but  will  show  us  plainly  of  the  Father.  He 
recognizes  that  in  time  it  will  be  necessary  for  us  to 
know  the  things  that  we  now  believe,  so  that  they  may 
be  our  own,  the  full  possession  of  our  souls,  with  all 
their  power  to  affect  and  bless  us. 

He  who  comes  to  this  period  in  this  world  finds  it  a 
time  of  mental  distress  and  doubt.  He  can  no  longer 
rest  content  in  his  child-life  and  child-thought.  It  is 
like  the  breaking  up  of  all  things.  His  nest,  like  the 
young  eagle's,  is  torn  in  pieces,  and  his  soul  is  borne 
out  over  the  unstable  sea,  into  which  it  seems  always 
falling.  It  seems  at  times  as  if  he  would  end  in  utter 
unbelief.  But  he  will  not,  for  he  feels  the  need,  more 
than  ever,  of  a  rest  for  his  soul ;  and  he  finds  it,  through 
patient  reflection,  in  a  higher  form  of  belief,  a  belief  in 
which  his  intellect  and  reason  as  well  as  his  conscience 
and  heart  agree.  It  is  as  when  the  child,  carefully  nur- 
tured in  a  sheltering  home,  is  suddenly  bereft  of  parents 
and  sent  forth  to  make  a  home  for  himself:  he  will  do 
it,  —  all  his  manhood  will  rise  to  meet  the  demand. 
"With  the  living  soul,  doubt  and  question  and  research 
are  the  upward  rugged  path  by  which  it  comes  out  on 
a  higher,  broader  plain,  where  the  heavens  bend  down 
closer  to  the  earth,  and  a  new  and  sweeter  light  and 
beauty  lie  on  all  things.  By  this  process  of  personal 
study,  question,  and  search,  every  human  soul  is  either 
here  or  hereafter  to  grow  in  knowledge  and  in  grace  of 
perfection.  Heaven  and  the  universe  are  broad  and 
rich,  and  full  of  all  glories  and  beatitudes  of  truth  and 


THE  HISTORY  OF  A  SOUL.  87 

]ife ;  but  you  and  I  must  make  them  our  own  by  per- 
sonal contact  and  knowledge.  Not  arbitrarily  can  they 
be  given  to  us. 

But  the  soul  grows  also  in  knowledge  of  God,  and  in 
many  truths,  even  in  the  period  of  its  childhood,  by  the 
practice  of  piety  and  the  service  of  God,  —  according  to 
that  Word  which  promises  that  he  that  doeth  His  will 
shall  know  of  the  doctrine.  We  may  indeed  come  in 
our  life  to  a  period  of  question  and  doubt  and  study 
which  is  not  at  all  the  true  majority  of  the  soul,  not  at 
all  the  sign  of  our  growtli.  Tlie  doubts  and  questions 
and  searchings  of  a  true  soul  arise  from  the  new  and  in- 
tense desire  to  know  the  truth,  and  the  soul's  necessity 
to  be  satisfied.  But  there  are  questions  and  doubts  in 
many  persons  which  are  but  the  fault-findings  of  an 
uneasy  conscience,  or  the  pleasure  of  a  shallow  vanity 
pleased  with  the  idea  of  superior  wisdom  and  an  inde- 
pendent mind.  Often  they  are  only  the  heart's  justifi- 
cation to  itself  of  a  life  that  needs  some  excuse.  Have 
you  questions,  doubts,  and  difficulties  ?  One  test  will 
show  their  real  worth.  Do  your  questions  arise  from 
a  real  desire  to  know  the  truth  ?  Do  they  lead  to  an 
earnest,  faithful  study  of  religious  things  ?  If  they 
do,  they  are  the  signs  of  a  soul  alive  and  growing.  If 
they  do  not,  they  are  worthless ;  they  do  not  deserve  a 
moment's  regard.  You  have  no  right  to  them ;  they  are 
the  sins  of  your  soul  against  your  God. 

3.  But  through  the  childlike  submission  and  faith 
by  which  we  enter  the  kingdom  of  God  we  come  to  the 
period  of  personal  acquaintance  with,  and  knowledge  of, 
all  truth  and  all  good,  and  through  this  process  of  soul- 
growth  we  come  at  last  to  the  final  period  of  the  soul's 


88  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

vast  existence :  "  Till  we  all  come,  in  the  unity  of  the 
faith  and  of  the  knowledge  of  the  Son  of  God,  unto  a 
perfect  man,  unto  the  measure  of  the  stature  of  the  ful- 
ness of  Christ." 

The  measure  of  a  man  is  not  at  all  what  we  are  at 
this  beginning  of  our  life.  It  does  not  even  appear, 
in  what  we  are  now,  what  we  shall  be  when  we  have 
come  to  that  perfect  man  which  each  true  soul  is  to 
become.  No  human  artist  could  ever  paint  the  face  of 
Christ  without  degrading  Him,  for  no  one  could  ever 
in  lines  and  colors  represent  the  interior  glory  of  His 
divine  nature.  No  one  can  ever  paint  in  language  or 
conceive  in  thought  the  "  perfect  man."  We  can  in- 
deed discern  a  few  outlines,  as  in  the  unlimited  capa- 
city of  man  to  know,  —  how  vast  an  outline  !  —  and  in 
the  connections  of  a  man's  soul  with  God,  his  ability 
to  know  Him,  to  commune  with  Him,  to  think  His 
thoughts,  to  share  His  life,  —  how  vast  an  outline  is 
this  also !  —  and  in  a  man's  power  through  his  sensi- 
bilities to  make  a  life,  an  experience  of  keenest  pain 
or  pleasure,  of  all  that  he  sees  and  feels  and  touches,  — 
how  vast  is  this  again  !  —  and  in  the  eternity  of  his 
existence.  Outlines  how  vast  of  a  perfect  man  are 
these  capacities  !  Let  them  be  filled  up,  and  then 
only  will  a  man  and  his  life  be  the  real  measure  of  a 
man.  And  they  will  be  filled  up.  They  are  slowly 
being  filled  up  by  the  growth  in  grace  and  knowledge, 
and  in  this  growth  each  true  soul  is  coming  to  a  per- 
feet  man,  to  the  time  when  he  can  stand  beside  the 
glorious  Son  of  Man  and  be  like  Him.  In  the  favor- 
ing conditions  of  heaven  every  soul  that  is  there  will 
come  to  perfection.     "  Trees  of  righteousness,  the  plant- 


THE  HISTORY  OF  A   SOUL.  89 

ing  of  the  Lord,  that  He  may  be  glorified,"  no  power  of 
evil  shall  hinder  their  perfect  blossom  or  their  perfect 
fruit.  The  glory  of  God  is  the  soul  of  a  man.  In  its 
perfection  His  glory,  not  merely  His  goodness,  is  dis- 
played, and  therefore  the  Son  of  God  is  not  ashamed 
to  call  tliem  brethren,  in  whom  His  Father  is  revealed. 

Thus  after  the  childhood  of  ignorance  and  trust,  and 
after  the  struggles  of  the  period  of  growth,  we  shall 
come  to  the  glorious  perfection  of  our  immortal  nature; 
and  then,  through  the  long  peaceful  ages,  in  the  infi- 
nite peace  of  God,  the  eternal  life,  in  perfect  love, 
shall  pass  the  years  away.  We  shall  be  gathered  in 
the  unity  of  the  great  family  of  God,  the  broken  ties 
of  life  rejoined,  the  dead  whom  the  heart  still  holds 
dear  restored  to  our  love,  and  in  the  perfect  liberty 
of  the  sons  of  God  the  great  history  of  the  eternal 
life  of  the  perfect  soul  will  begin. 

This  is  my  hope  for  myself,  and  for  every  follower 
of  Christ.  Thus  I  think  of  man,  of  his  earthly  life 
and  his  future  prospects.  Under  the  conditions  of 
your  life,  covered  up  with  earthly  cares  and  imperfec- 
tions, I  see  your  soul  in  its  childhood  and  its  growth, 
slowly  coming  to  this  perfection.  I  know  that  your 
soul  is  a  sacred  thing  to  the  God  that  made  it.  His 
life.  His  law,  His  eternity,  are  in  it.  Over  all  the 
littlenesses  of  your  life  I  see  the  grandeur  of  this  great 
destiny.  I  speak  to  you  as  the  children  of  eternity, 
on  whose  life  by  and  by  I  shall  see  the  beauty  of 
holiness  and  the  image  of  our  God.  I  warn  you  of 
your  immortality.  I  remind  you  of  the  solemn  scenes 
that  await  you.  I  call  you  to  God  and  the  Christian 
life,  because  on   your  relation  to  Him  hangs  all  this 


90  GOD   IN   NATURE   AND   LIFE. 

infinite  importance  and  value.  I  see,  I  know,  nothing 
in  all  the  universe  so  great,  so  solemn  as  the  soul  of 
man.  I  know  no  crime  so  fatal,  no  guilt  so  heavy,  as 
a  soul's  neglect  of  itself  and  its  God.  I  never  see  the 
world  of  nature  or  of  mankind,  without  seeing  them 
all  encompassed  and  embosomed  in  the  great,  solemn 
spiritual  world  of  God  and  His  kingdom.  I  never 
think  of  man's  life  but  as  a  part  of  this  vast  history 
of  a  soul.  My  motives  and  inducements  to  the  Chris- 
tian life  are  in  the  fact  that  that  life  is  the  straight 
path  of  a  man's  progress  to  his  perfection,  the  true  in- 
troduction or  preface  to  the  glorious  records  of  the  life 
eternal.  These  motives  once  more  I  have  brought  to 
you  all.  Let  us  come  as  little  children  into  the  king- 
dom of  God ;  let  us  believe,  and  submit  to  Christ.  Let 
us  grow  in  grace  and  knowledge  of  the  Lord,  and  so 
struggle  on  toward  the  perfect  man.  Then  in  a  little 
while  we  shall  take  up  again  our  studies  together  of 
the  deep  things  of  God,  there,  where  a  new  and 
sweeter  light  will  shine  upon  them  all. 


TUE   WAY  OF  PEKFECTION.  91 


THE  WAY  OF   PERFECT lOK 

Sanctify  them  through  thy  truth :  thy  word  is  truth. 
John  xvii.  17. 

THE  most  exalted  purpose  that  a  man  can  cherish 
and  strive  for  is  the  purpose  to  become  a  pure 
and  perfect  man,  to  reach  tlie  utmost  limit  of  what  a 
man  can  be.  That  greatness  and  worth  which  belong  to 
a  man's  nature  when  fully  perfected  is  a  loftier  great- 
ness, a  higher  worth,  than  can  possibly  be  attained 
throuo'h  any  external  advantages  which  even  God 
could  bestow  upon  him.  No  man  can  ever  represent 
to  us  in  this  world  what  a  perfect  man  is.  "  It  doth 
not  yet  appear  what  we  shall  be."  We  are  too  low, 
as  yet,  that  we  should  see  so  high,  —  too  far  away  from 
it  to  see,  at  such  a  distance,  what  it  is.  But  the  per- 
fect man,  fully  grown,  stands  next  to  God,  and  nearest 
of  all  His  creatures  to  Himself,  partaker  of  the  divine 
nature,  partaker  of  His  holiness,  and  entered  into  the 
joy  of  his  Lord.  Christ  was  indeed  a  perfect  man, 
and  presents  to  us  the  inexpressible  beauty  of  human 
perfection  in  a  life  of  sorrow  and  self-sacrifice.  But 
the  world  knew  Him  not,  and  we  have  not  yet  seen 
Him  "  as  He  is."  What  He  was,  in  His  abasement  and 
sorrow,  we  can  "  see  in  part ; "  but  what  He  is,  in  the 
glory  of  His  perfection  at  the  right  hand  of  God,  we 


92  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

have  not  seen,  and  shall  not  see  until  we  shall  "be 
with  Him  where  He  is,  and  behold  His  glory."  The 
glory  that  shall  be  revealed  in  us,  in  the  perfection, 
power,  and  purity  of  our  souls,  will  be  greater  than 
all  the  glory  of  those  new  conditions  on  which  we 
hope  to  enter  in  the  heavenly  life. 

To  be  wise,  to  know  all  things,  is  a  noble  ambition, 
an  exalted  purpose.  To  be  strong  and  mighty,  to 
mould  the  fortunes  and  the  thoughts  of  men,  is  an 
exalted  purpose.  But  to  be  is  greater  than  to  know ; 
to  be  great  and  grand  in  our  own  nature,  in  what  we 
are,  is  far  more  than  to  be  great  and  grand  by  position 
among  others.  The  king  is  a  great  man,  whatever  his 
character;  but  the  royal,  kingly  soul  is  greater  still, 
though  his  position  be  among  the  unhonored  of  this 
world.  And  to  become  a  royal,  kingly,  saintly  soul 
is  an  infinitely  more  exalted  purpose  and  hope  than 
any  other  can  be.  This  is  the  hope  and  purpose  of 
the  believer  in  Christ.  To  this  end  the  beginnings  of 
his  new  life  lead.  Toward  this  crown  of  life  his  soul 
reaches  forth  in  all  holy  aspirations  of  faith  and  hope 
and  prayer.  That  which  lies  at  the  bottom  of  the 
Christian's  imperfect  attainments  and  experiences  is 
this  great  hope,  —  "I  shall  know  all,  I  shall  be  strong, 
I  shall  be  holy,  by  and  by."  Yes,  look  on  all  these 
weak,  imperfect,  troubled  children  of  God  ;  in  every 
one  of  them  is  this  hope  burning  as  a  lamp  that 
lightens  the  lowermost  depth  of  the  soul ;  in  every 
one  of  them  this  purpose  to  become  pure  and  perfect 
holds  steady  like  an  anchor  of  the  soul  amid  the  waves ; 
and  every  one  of  them  shall  yet  glitter  and  shine  in 
the  beauty  of  holiness,  in  the  glory  of  perfection,  in 


THE   WAY  OF  PERFECTION.  93 

tlie  greatness  and  grandeur  of  souls  that  wear  the 
image  and  bear  the  likeness  of  God. 

And  this  is  the  plan  and  purpose  of  God  in  respect 
to  His  children  ;  not  the  vain  and  visionary  dream  of 
a  religious  enthusiasm,  but  the  solid,  changeless  pur- 
pose of  God.  "'  For  this  is  the  will  of  God,  even  your 
sanctification.  For  whom  He  justifies,  them  He  also 
sanctifies,  and  whom  He  sanctifies,  them  He  also  glori- 
fies." The  whole  work  of  redemption  through  Christ 
consists  in  this,  —  the  delivering  of  the  soul  from  sin, 
and  the  bringing  it  up  to  its  utmost  perfection  in  the 
heavenly  life.  It  is  not,  then,  the  mere  purjDose  and 
struggle  of  our  own  hearts  to  reach  the  glory  of  per- 
fection, but  the  whole  force  and  drift  of  His  provi- 
dence and  grace  carries  us  toward  the  same  great  end. 
And  it  will  be  reached ;  and  each  child  of  God,  how- 
ever lowly  and  ignorant  here,  will  surely  stand  at 
last  covered  with  the  beauty  of  holiness  and  the 
brightness  of  human  perfection,  like  the  angel  standing 
in  the  sun. 

But  by  what  means  can  a  man  reach  the  full  per- 
fection and  purity  of  all  the  capacities  of  his  soul  ? 
Narrow,  weak,  and  dark,  what  is  it  that  can  widen, 
strengthen,  and  enlighten  his  life  ?  Oppressed  and  en- 
slaved, what  is  it  that  can  set  his  powers  free,  and  give 
them  growth  and  strength  ?  Our  Lord  has  answered  : 
"  Sanctify  them  through  thy  truth  :  thy  word  is  truth." 

If  we  would  feed  a  soul,  what  is  there  to  feed  it 
with,  but  "  whatsoever  things  are  true  "  ?  If  we  would 
enlarge  a  soul,  what  is  there  with  which  we  can  do  it 
but  great  ideas,  great  truths  ?  As  the  body  is  created 
for  the   material   elements   of   Nature,   and  feeds   its 


94  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

growth  and  strength  by  appropriating  them,  so  the 
soul  is  created  for  the  spiritual  elements,  for  ideas, 
for  truth,  and  on  these  it  lives  what  life  it  has.  The 
soul  of  any  man  has  no  larger  a  life  than  it  has  truth 
to  make  a  soul-life  of.  A  soul  that  knew  and  felt 
nothing  of  divine  truth  would  have  no  life,  any  more 
than  a  body  would  have  life  that  knew  and  felt 
nothing  of  the  material  world  around  it.  The  growth 
toward  greatness  and  purity  in  a  soul  is  just  as  de- 
pendent upon  the  knowledge  and  experience  of  divine 
truth,  as  the  growth  and  strength  of  a  child's  body  is 
iipon  its  food.  We  shall  be  greatly  deceived  if  we 
imagine  that  a  man  can  grow  in  grace,  without  grow- 
ing in  the  knowledf^e  of  Christ  and  of  the  truths  He 
taught.  And  how  it  is  that  by  means  of  the  truth 
a  man  is  brought  forward  toward  the  glorious  per- 
fection of  complete  sanctification,  is  expressed  in  the 
text :  "  Sanctify  them  through  thy  truth ; "  then  of 
course  the  truth  must  be  known.  In  some  manner 
it  must  come  into  our  notice  and  consideration  and 
belief.  There  is  vast  importance  in  every  means  by 
which  the  truth  of  God  is  brought  to  our  notice  and 
exhibited  to  our  understanding.  There  is  vast  im- 
portance in  every  means  of  knowing  what  is  truth. 

But  more  than  this  ;  it  is  necessary  that  the  truth 
should  be  practically  operative  on  our  affections,  our 
will,  and  our  conduct.  The  knowledge  of  the  truth 
is  to  be  considered  important  only  as  a  means  of  some- 
thing better.  "  Sanctify  them  through  thy  trutli."  The 
moral  impression  and  effect  of  truth  on  the  heart  and 
life  are  the  real  means  by  which  the  soul  is  perfected 
and  the  life  enlarcred.     The  sun  enlightens  the  world 


THE  WAY  OF  PERFECTION.  95 

\)y  its  sliining,  but  it  has  other  and  far  more  mighty 
and  important  effects  than  this.  Its  chemical  rays  and 
forces  are  the  cause  of  all  the  subtle  changes  which 
build  up  the  vegetation  of  the  earth,  which  color  it 
with  beauty  and  clothe  it  with  living,  growing  forms. 
All  plants  and  animals  are  dependent  for  life  and  fruit- 
fulness  upon  the  heat  and  chemical  force  of  the  sun's 
rays.  Therefore  if  we  could  take  away  from  sunshine 
everything  but  liglit,  leaving  light  alone,  the  sun  might 
shine  in  unclouded  splendor  forever,  yet  it  would  only 
shine  upon  a  lifeless,  colorless,  barren,  dead  world  ;  not 
even  a  liclien  or  a  moss-cup  would  bless  or  relieve  the 
utter  cold  and  barrenness.  And  if  we  take  away  from 
divine  truth  all  but  the  mere  knowledge  of  what  it  is, 
and  leave  to  it  its  intellectual  light  alone,  that  light 
will  shine  upon  a  soul  cold  and  barren  and  dead  as  the 
ice-fields  of  polar  regions,  —  cold  as  they  are  though  a 
six-months'  sun  shine  upon  them  without  a  single  set- 
ting in  all  that  time.  The  truth  of  God  must  do  more 
than  enlighten ;  it  must  come  Avith  warming  and 
quickening  and  exciting  power  to  our  affections  and 
our  will. 

And  that  the  truth  may  have  this  practical  power  to 
quicken  and  sanctify  us,  one  thing  more  is  necessary. 
"Sanctify  them  through  thy  truth;"  tliis  is  a  prayer. 
It  is  a  prayer  in  which  God  is  asked  to  add  His  own 
power  to  the  truth,  that  it  may  sanctify  His  people.  And 
this  influence  of  God,  this  direct  exertion  of  His  power, 
is  the  last  thing  necessary  to  the  perfection  of  our 
nature  in  power  and  holiness.  And  that  God  should 
exert  His  own  power  through  the  truth  is'  necessary  by 
very  nature.     How  could  the  sunshine  have  any  power. 


96  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

if  there  were  not  a  great  burning  sun,  full  of  power,  and 
constantly  streaming  forth  its  power  in  the  rays  that 
flow  from  it  ?  How  could  what  you  say  to  your  child 
have  any  practical  effect,  unless  the  influence  of  your 
will,  join  power,  your  authority,  went  with  what  you 
say  ?  You  must  not  merely  say  it,  —  you  must  will  to 
exert  a  personal  influence  at  the  same  time.  You  your- 
self must  be  in  your  word,  your  spirit  must  go  with 
your  saying,  or  your  words  have  no  meaning  and  no 
force.  In  like  manner  God  Himself  must  exert  a  per- 
sonal influence  in  the  truth  that  He  reveals,  or  else  even 
such  truth  as  this  will  fail  of  the  practical  power  that 
He  intends  and  our  souls  need.  God  himself  must  be 
in  God's  word,  and  His  Spirit  must  be  in  His  saying, 
or  His  utterance  will  be  void  of  power. 

If  then  the  hope  of  the  believer,  the  perfection  of  his 
nature,  shall  ever  be  reached,  it  will  be  through  the 
knowledge  and  experience  of  the  truths  that  are  taught 
in  the  "Word  of  God.  Everything  depends  upon  this. 
There  is  nothing  else  by  which  the  soul  can  be  enlarged, 
strengthened,  and  purified  into  the  glory  of  its  last  per- 
fection. Ideas,  without  regard  to  their  character,  may 
have  an  effect  to  develop  the  mind,  to  sharpen  its 
powers,  and  strengthen  its  capacity  to  reason  and  to 
judge  ;  but  if  great  ideas  are  not  true  ideas,  they  will 
enlarge  the  mind  only  to  its  injury,  and  he  that  in- 
creaseth  knowledge  without  gathering  truth,  and  truth 
in  its  practical  effects,  increaseth  his  own  sorrow.  To 
know  and  to  feel  the  truth  of  God  is  the  only  way  we 
have  of  growing  free  from  our  ignorance,  our  delusions, 
our  depravity,  into  the  perfection  of  power  and  holiness 
in  life  everlasting.    How  important    then  are  all  the 


THE   WAY  OF  PERFECTION.  97 

means  by  which  our  knowledge  of  the  truth  may  be  in- 
creased, and  our  impressions  and  convictions  of  it  may  be 
deepened  !  "  The  truth  shall  make  you  free,"  —  but  the 
want  of  it  will  leave  us  slaves  to  depravity  and  misery- 
We  perish  for  lack  of  vision  of  the  truth.  We  starve 
and  shiver  in  cold  and  hunger  of  soul,  because  we  do 
not  feed  ourselves  with  the  bread  of  life,  the  truth  of 
God. 

How  important  thus  becomes  the  earnest  study  of  the 
words  of  God!  These  are  truth,  truth  at  first  hand, 
truth  in  original  form  and  substance,  direct  from  the 
mind  of  God.  There  is  no  greater  evil  afflicting  the 
spiritual  life  of  men  than  the  habit  which  of  late  years 
has  been  increasing  so  fast,  of  depending  upon  books  and 
preaching  for  our  knowledge  of  God.  We  express  our 
pity  for  the  poor  Catholic  of  the  common  people,  who 
can  never  read  for  himself  the  Word  of  God,  but  must 
take  all  that  he  knows  of  it  from  the  interpretations 
of  the  Church,  —  whose  own  heart  is  thus  kept  from 
immediate  contact  with  the  words  of  divine  love.  Yet 
we  may  fear  that  many  among  us  are  almost  as  effectu- 
ally kept  from  the  living  words  of  God  by  tlieir  own 
habit  of  neglecting  the  Bil)le,  and  depending  for  their 
knowledge  of  it  upon  what  they  liear  from  others. 
However  incapable  any  person  may  be  of  understanding 
all  parts  of  the  Bible,  he  will  yet  be  all  the  more  helped 
by  books  and  preaching  if  he  is  at  the  same  time 
faithfully  reading  the  Word  of  God  for  himself.  We  may 
find  many  difficulties  in  understanding  all  its  teachings, 
but  it  is  not  in  vain  to  study  and  read  the  Word  of  God, 
even  if  we  cannot  clearly  understand  it  all.  A  blind 
man  cannot  see  the  light  of  the  sun,  but  he  can  feel  its 


98  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

warmth  ;  and  if  we  cannot  see  the  perfect  form  of  truth, 
we  nevertheless  can  feel  its  power  to  a  great  degree, 
just  as  thousands  do  feel  the  power  of  great  truths 
which  they  cannot  express.  These  words  of  Christ  are 
spirit,  and  they  are  life  ;  and  we  can  feel  their  spirit 
and  life  by  means  of  our  conscience  and  affections,  even 
when  we  cannot  satisfactorily  comprehend  in  our  minds 
the  language  in  which  the  spirit  and  life  are  clothed. 
It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  a  person  must  have  a  clear 
mental  conception  of  a  great  religious  truth  before  he 
can  be  rightly  and  profitably  impressed  by  the  power  of 
that  truth.  The  words  of  Christ  do  not  describe  ideas 
so  much  as  realities  and  facts ;  and  we  can  feel  realities 
and  facts  even  when  we  do  not  clearly  see  them.  It 
does  not  matter  how  ignorant  or  weak  a  man  may  be,  — 
the  Bible  can  still  do  him  a  great  good.  There  is  a 
power  in  the  words  of  God  to  go  straight  to  the  heart, 
even  when  the  mind  is  dark.  No  human  explanations, 
however  plain,  can  ever  be  of  so  much  service  to  us  as 
to  study  for  ourselves  the  words  of  God.  We  come 
closer  to  the  fountain  of  spiritual  life  and  power  when 
we  are  earnestly  looking  at  something  that  God  has 
said,  than  when  listening  to  any  human  teacher  ex- 
plaining it. 

How  wonderful  a  thing  is  the  Bible  !  Would  we  like 
to  see  into  the  mind  of  God,  to  look  into  His  great 
spirit,  to  see  what  He  is  thinking  of  ?  We  have  the 
opportunity  to  do  this  in  the  words  of  the  Bible.  These 
are  openings  through  which  one  may  see  into  the  mind 
of  God  and  know  His  thoughts.  How  precious  to  us 
should  be  every  thought  of  God  which  He  gives  us  the 
privilege  to  see !     A  thought  of  God  !     Has  ever  one 


THE   WAY   OF  PERFECTION,  99 

such  thought  of  God  got  out  into  this  world  among 
the  thoughts  of  men  ?  How  should  it  be  wonderingly, 
adoringly  cherished,  as  a  supernatural  opal  burning  in 
its  fiame-like  glory  among  earth's  poor  pebbles !  And 
yet  the  Bible  is  full  of  the  thoughts  of  God,  and  for 
these  thoughts  we  should  search  in  His  Word.  How 
little  we  have  thought  that  among  the  liistories, 
biographies,  parables,  and  prophecies  of  the  Bible 
there  lie  these  great  living  thoughts  of  God,  like  arch- 
angels covered  with  human  robes,  lying  among  children 
at  their  play.  We  have  felt  toward  the  Bible  as  if 
it  were  tame  and  dull,  because  we  have  read  it  or 
thought  of  it  as  a  mere  book  of  morals,  while  its  glorious 
character  as  a  revelation  of  God's  mind  and  heart  has 
been  overlooked.  If  we  have  no  interest  in  what  God 
thinks  and  feels,  it  will  be  tedious;  but  if  we  care 
to  know  His  thoughts,  if  we  wish  to  know  how  He 
feels  toward  us,  and  look  into  His  word  to  find  out 
this,  it  will  never  be  dull  and  dry,  but  full  of  spirit 
and  of  life. 

Men  and  women  seem  to  fancy  that  the  meaning  and 
truth  of  the  Word  of  God  has  somehow  got  out  of  the 
Bible  into  general  circulation,  and  that  the  common 
religious  ideas  which  all  possess  are  the  substance  of  all 
there  is  in  the  Word  of  God  ;  and  therefone  they  neglect 
the  Bible,  as  though  they  already  possessed  its  value  in 
these  common  religious  ideas.  There  is  hardly  a  greater 
mistake  than  this.  The  common  religious  ideas  in  gen- 
eral  circulation  are  the  smallest  part  of  the  riches  of 
truth  and  instruction  which  it  contains,  as  every  one 
will  find  who  honestly  and  prayerfully  goes  to  it  for 
spiritual  food  and  light. 


100  GOD  IN  NATURE   AND   LIFE. 

If  we  would  be  sanctified  by  the  truth,  we  must 
study  the  Word  of  God  always  with  a  reference  to  our- 
selves, to  our  own  duty,  experience,  and  history.  The 
Word  of  God  is  nothing  if  it  is  not  practical  to  us.  It 
is  the  peculiar  character  of  the  Bible  that  it  is  a  book 
in  which  every  man  has  an  equal  personal  interest. 
If  it  has  any  significance  beyond  a  mere  collection 
of  histories,  that  significance  will  be  found  by  us  only 
when  we  study  it  as  addressed  to  ourselves  by  God. 
He  did  indeed  speak  first  to  others,  but  He  meant  that 
we  should  overhear,  and  take  to  ourselves  what  He 
said.  Every  truth  is  a  different  thing  as  it  is  consid- 
ered in  relation  to  ourselves  or  in  a  general  manner. 
If  I  tl)ink  of  God  only  to  consider  what  He  may  be,  I 
may  increase  my  ideas,  but  shall  be  little  likely  to  in- 
crease my  satisfaction,  as  I  do  when  I  think  of  Him 
as  my  God,  my  Sovereign,  my  dependence  in  all  the 
relations  that  He  holds  to  me.  To  think  of  Providence 
in  general  may  be  a  pleasant  study ;  but  to  think  of 
Providence  in  relation  to  myself,  my  past  life,  my 
present  condition,  my  future  changes,  makes  Providence 
a  great  spiritual  power,  deeply  affecting  my  whole  soul 
and  life.  We  may  study  the  character  and  life  of 
Jesus  in  such  a  way  as  never  to  be  benefited  by 
the  study,  —  in  a  way  that  insults  Him,  as  if  He 
had  been  set  forth  merely  to  be  studied  as  a  curiosity, 
or  an  abstract  idea.  But  to  think  of  Him  as  a  living 
Person,  closely  connected  with  our  life,  our  hopes  and 
fears  and  dangers,  makes  His  character  and  life  a 
different  thing,  and  vastly  more  powerful  for  our 
sanctification.  Every  thought  of  God  in  His  word  is 
for  us ;  we  should  study  each  one  as  if  it  had  been 


THE   WAY   OF  PERFECTION.  IQl 

uttered  to  us.  Then  all  the  treasures  of  truth  in  the 
Word  of  God  will  possess  power  for  us.  A  man  looks 
on  a  pleasant  landscape  of  thrifty  farms  and  pleasant 
homes,  of  fruitful  fields  and  smiling  skies,  and  feels  it 
only  as  a  pleasant  scene.  How  different  it  becomes 
when  he  sees  it  all  as  his  own  inheritance,  the  resource 
of  his  wealth,  the  home  of  his  friends,  and  the  peaceful 
scene  of  his  own  peaceful  life  ! 

Furthermore,  since  it  is  only  by  the  influence  of  God 
in  His  Word  that  that  Word  sanctifies  us,  we  should 
study  it  in  the  spirit  of  prayer.  It  is  not  the  mere 
natural  force  of  truth  that  can  change  our  moral  nature, 
subdue  the  tendencies  to  evil,  and  bring  forward  the 
principle  of  a  divine  life  toward  perfection.  The 
power,  the  influence  of  God  alone  can  do  this, 
through  the  truth;  and  it  is  not  only  proper  but 
necessary  that  we  should  seek  in  prayer  for  the  Spirit 
of  God  to  take  the  truth  of  His  Word  and  show  it  unto 
us,  and  fix  it  deeply  in  our  hearts.  In  reading  any 
book,  our  moods  are  more  important  to  us  than  our 
intelligence.  If  we  take  up  a  philosophical  book  to 
read,  we  waste  our  time  if  we  cannot  bring  our  minds 
into  a  philosophical  mood.  If  we  read  the  Bible  in  un- 
suitable, un spiritual  moods  of  mind,  it  can  have  for  us 
very  little  sanctifying  power.  If  our  souls  are  ever  to 
attain  to  their  utmost  perfection  through  the  knowledge 
and  experience  of  the  truth,  it  will  be  because  God 
sanctifies  us  by  His  own  power  through  the  truth. 
We  must  therefore  seek  His  power  and  grace  in  the 
truth,  as  well  as  the  truth  itself.  To  know  the  truth 
is  to  know  God's  thoughts.  To  feel  the  truth  is  to 
feel  what    He  thinks  and  what  He   feels.     All    true 


102  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

seeking  of  truth  is  seeking  Gud.  And  the  spirit  of 
prayer,  the  spirit  of  communion  with  God,  is  the 
necessary  spirit  in  studying  His  Word. 

All  the  means  by  which  we  are  to  be  raised  above 
our  present  depraved  and  wretched  estate,  and  brought 
to  perfection  in  our  whole  nature,  lie  in  the  truths 
taught  in  the  Word  of  God.  How  vast  an  interest 
you  and  I  have,  therefore,  in  knowing  and  experien- 
cing those  truths  !  We  cannot  advance  one  step 
without  knowing  and  feeling  some  one  of  those  truths 
more  thoroughly  than  we  now  do.  There  are  no 
other  means  by  which  the  soul  can  be  assisted  in  its 
highest  growth.  How  great  occasion  have  we  to  pray 
daily  for  the  teaching  of  God,  —  "  Open  thou  mine 
eyes,  that  I  may  behold  wondrous  things  out  of  thy 
law "  !  A  neglected  Bible  is  the  advertisement  of  a 
character  and  life  in  which  there  is  very  little  if  any 
progress,  unless  it  be  in  evil.  We  are  to  judge  of 
the  importance  of  these  means  of  knowing  and  feeling 
the  truths  of  God's  Word,  by  the  impartance  of  our  own 
redemption  from  the  power  of  depravity  and  sin,  and 
of  our  perfection  in  the  powers  and  purity  of  our 
souls.  The  value  and  importance  of  money  is  the  value 
and  importance  of  all  that  money  can  procure.  The 
value  and  importance  of  an  earnest,  prayerful  study  of 
the  truths  of  God's  Word  is  the  value  of  the  glory  and 
happiness  of  a  perfect  being  in  a  perfect  life.  May  we 
find  mercy  for  the  thoughtless  wickedness  of  neglecting 
what  God  has  said !  It  should  be  our  constant  prayer 
that  God  will  not  suffer  us  to  forget  what  we  know  of 
His  truth,  and  that  He  will  each  day  make  us  feel 
some  one  great  truth  more  deeply.     Do  we  hope  to  be 


THE   WAY  OF  PERFECTION.  103 

better  ?  Do  we  hope  to  be  freed  from  sin  and  darkness  ? 
Let  us  remember  that  this  can  never  be,  except  through 
experiencing  more  deeply  the  truths  of  which  we  hear 
so  niucli  and  think  so  little. 

And  yet  more;  if  we  would  be  sanctified  by  the 
truth  we  must  obey  the  truth.  To  do  His  will  is  the 
way  to  know  of  the  doctrine.  The  highest  test  of  any 
truth  is  found  in  putting  it  in  practice.  The  quickest 
and  surest  way  to  make  ourselves  feel  any  great  truth 
is  to  adopt  it  as  a  rule  of  life.  How  much  more  real 
and  powerful  the  truth  of  tlie  existence  of  God  will 
be  to  me,  if  I  treat  Him  as  a  living  God,  and  worship 
Him  in  my  spirit,  and  obey  Him  in  my  actions,  and 
give  up  my  will  to  His !  How  much  more  real  and 
impressive  to  me  will  be  the  character  and  work  of 
Christ,  if  I  make  Him  my  Saviour,  trust  Him  for 
my  salvation,  follow  Him  as  my  Master,  obey  Him 
as  my  Lord  !  Everything  tliat  I  do  in  obedience  to 
the  will  of  God  has  a  natural  and  inevitable  effect 
to  strengthen  all  my  convictions  of  the  reality  of 
His  existence.  We  are  so  constituted  that  we  cannot 
be  practically  impressed  by  many  truths  and  powers 
until  we  yield  to  them.  The  frozen  earth  in  winter 
lies  under  the  sun  as  truly  as  in  summer ;  but  until  it 
has  turned  itself  more  directly  to  the  sun,  and  yielded 
to  its  power,  no  bud  swells,  no  seed  starts,  no  lii'e 
appears.  When  the  frozen  surface  has  once  yielded  to 
the  sun,  all  is  changed,  and  it  is  but  a  little  while  before 
the  earth  is  quick  with  life,  and  crowned  first  with 
beauty  and  then  with  fruit.  It  is  by  the  truth  of  God, 
impressed  by  the  Spirit  of  God  upon  our  hearts,  that 
we  have  all  that  we  have  of  spiritual  life  and  power. 


104  GOD  IN  NATURE   AND  LIFE. 

If  we  ever  have  more,  it  will  be  by  the  same  means 
applied  more  richly  to  our  souls.  Let  us  turu  ourselves 
to  the  sua.  Let  us  hear  and  heed  our  Lord  wheu  He 
says  to  us,  "  If  ye  continue  in  my  word,  then  are  ye 
my  disciples  indeed ;  and  ye  shall  know  the  truth,  and 
the  truth  shall  make  you  free." 

The  hope  of  that  complete  perfection  of  our  nature 
which  will  fit  us  for  the  utmost  bliss  and  glory  of 
which  we  are  created  capable,  is  a  great  and  blessed 
hope,  and  it  is  one  that  shall  surely  be  realized  by 
every  person  who  loves  and  obeys  the  truth  of  God. 
Toward  that  glory  God  is  leading  all  such  souls ;  for  it 
He  is  fitting  them  by  the  truth  that  they  are  learning 
in  thought  and  experience.  And  while  those  of  you 
who  are  rejecting  the  counsel  of  God's  words  are  laying 
up  for  yourselves  the  bitter  remorse  and  the  weary 
despair  of  a  hopeless  doom,  those  of  you  who  are  obey- 
ing, studying,  and  loving  the  truth  are  being  sanctified 
by  it,  and  will  grow  in  grace  and  knowledge  until  you 
come  to  the  stature  of  perfect  men  and  women  in 
Christ.  And  that  great  glory  which  shall  be,  reflects 
its  brightness  back  upon  you  now.  The  honor  and 
bliss  of  what  you  shall  be,  glorifies  you  even  now 
and  here.  Let  that  hope  give  you  value  in  the  sight  of 
your  own  humble  faith,  and  let  it  serve  as  the  high- 
est motive  that  you  can  have  for  faithfulness  in  the 
present  work  and  service  of  Him  who  calls  you  up 
to  His  own  glory. 


UNCERTAINTY.  105 


UNCERTAINTY. 

And  thy  life  shall  hang  in  douht  before  thee. 
Deux,  xxviii.  66. 

IN  the  long  list  of  evils  and  sufferings  which  are 
threatened  against  the  disobedience  of  Israel  this 
is  one,  that,  driven  from  their  own  land,  wasting  as 
captives  to  their  enemies,  depending  on  the  mercy  of 
their  conquerors,  "  their  lives  shall  hang  in  doubt  before 
them  ;  "  a  constant  and  painful  suspense  of  uncertainty 
shall  fill  their  hearts.  The  safeguards  of  life  all  gone, 
the  air  heavy  with  the  boding  presence  of  danger,  and 
their  hearts  heavy  with  the  terrible  burden  of  anxious 
fear,  thus  they  should  be  made  to  feel  how  evil  and 
bitter  a  thing  it  is  to  forsake  their  God  and  incur  His 
displeasure.  It  is  indeed  one  of  the  most  bitter  con- 
sequences of  guilt,  that  it  creates  a  fearfulness  and 
trembling  of  heart,  and  makes  all  our  life  hang  in  doubt 
before  us.  It  destroys  the  sense  of  safety,  makes  us 
unable  to  rest,  and  the  tremble  of  our  own  heart  is 
C(jnunuuicated  to  everything  outside  of  us.  The  uni- 
verse seems  all  uncertain,  the  quietness  and  confidence 
of  life  is  exchanged  for  haunting  fears  and  gloomy 
forebodings.  Nor  is  it  our  welfare  alone  tliat  seems 
insecure  and  uncertain.  The  rocking  of  a  guilty  soul 
on  the  waves  of  its  own  troubled  thouMits  makes  the 


106  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

steadfast  stars  seem  to  tremble.  Doubt  seems  to  shake 
the  eternal  things  themselves.  God's  character  becomes 
doubtful  and  uncertain  to  us ;  His  providence,  His 
love,  His  justice,  His  word,  hang  in  doubt  before  us. 
Nothing  seems  trustworthy.  The  hand  of  a  guilty  soul 
trembles  too  much  to  take  supporting  hold  upon  any- 
thing. We  cannot  believe,  we  cannot  trust  or  rest, 
when  we  have  by  sense  of  sin  disturbed  our  own  hearts. 
And  this  is  indeed  one  of  the  greatest  evils  that  we 
bring  upon  ourselves  by  our  sin.  If  we  could  foresee 
how  our  sin  would  thus  undermine  the  soul's  rest,  so 
take  all  solid  ground  from  under  us,  so  set  us  in  dark- 
ness, with  our  life  and  our  future  hanging  in  doubt 
before  us,  we  would  never  dare  to  sin  as  we  do.  No 
present  evil,  no  suffering  which  is  certain,  which  the 
mind  can  understand,  can  be  compared  with  that  sus- 
pense which  the  threatening  presence  of  unknown  evil 
creates :  and  to  conceive  of  an  eternity  of  life  hung  in 
doubt  before  us,  tortured  with  the  sense  of  insecurity 
and  exposure,  haunted  with  the  presence  of  coming 
evil,  is  unspeakably  more  terrible  than  our  conception 
of  annihilation.  How  blessed  an  escape  would  the 
soul's  death  be,  for  one  whose  life  hung  in  such  con- 
stant doubt  before  him  ! 

But  it  is  not  alone  sin  and  wrong  in  us  that  makes 
life  hang  in  doubt  before  us.  There  is  for  us  a  great 
uncertainty  more  or  less  investing  all  things.  There 
are  but  few  things  which  are  fixed  and  certain  in  our 
thoughts.  We  have  but  few  convictions  which  doubt 
never  shakes,  but  few  hopes  that  never  tremble.  Our 
own  personal  fortunes  are  always  in  doubt.  We  watch 
the   coming   days   and   years,  we   question    the  silent 


UNCERTAINTY.  107 

future,  always  with  a  great  uncertainty.  We  have  so 
many  hopes  that  depend  on  what  are  to  us  uncertain- 
ties. Our  desires,  so  strong  and  anxious,  have  no 
security  for  their  fruition.  The  good  may  come,  but  so 
also  may  the  evil ;  and  our  past  experience  teaches  us 
to  fear  the  evil  much  more  strongly  than  we  expect  the 
good.  Our  life  is  in  the  future.  The  unopened  days 
conceal  what  it  will  be.  We  can  have  no  certainty  in 
regard  to  the  events  which  are  on  their  way  to  happen, 
and  all  the  great  interest  each  of  us  has  in  his  personal 
fortunes  is  invested  with  uncertainty  and  doubt,  —  not 
always  because  we  are  wrong  and  sinful,  but  because 
God  has  made  the  plan  of  our  life  to  be  to  us  thus 
doubtful. 

The  divine  realities  themselves  hang  in  doubt  be- 
fore us.  They  exist  beyond  the  reach  of  our  senses. 
Heaven  lies  all  around  us,  and  the  presence  of  God  is 
the  house  in  which  we  live,  and  the  providence  of  His 
love  is  ever  busy  in  our  life ;  the  silent  work  of  re- 
demption by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit  never  ceases. 
We  are  among  these  great  facts,  they  touch  us,  we  are 
constantly  influenced  by  them  ;  but  they  are  like  the 
invisible  forces  of  Nature  which  we  feel  without  know- 
ing where  they  are,  whence  they  come  or  whither  they 
go.  Our  sense  of  God  is  something  that  comes  in  upon 
us  from  some  mysterious  source  ;  we  cannot  verify  His 
existence  or  presence  by  our  senses.  Our  sense  of  the 
spiritual  world,  of  the  other  life,  of  the  angelic  ministry, 
and  of  the  connection  of  these  with  our  life,  is  an 
intimation  whispered  to  our  hearts,  rather  than  an 
effect  of  vision  or  of  reason  :  and  in  the  absence  of  all 
visible  tokens,  in  the  inability  of  our  reason  to  grasp 


108  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

and  demonstrate  these  divine  realities,  they  hang  in 
doubt  before  us.  Does  God  see  us  ?  Does  He  hear 
our  prayer  ?  Does  He  care  for  us  ?  How  can  man 
tell  ?  If  he  knows  these  things,  he  knows  them  by 
a  spiritual  capacity  of  faith  to  receive  them,  in  the 
absence  of  all  outward  token  of  them.  And  he  must 
be  certain  of  them  by  a  spiritual  experience ;  but  alas  ! 
our  darkness,  our  depravity,  our  worldliness,  are  a  sad 
injury  to  our  spiritual  capacity,  and  it  is  hard  to  come 
to  a  certainty  of  them  while  our  faith  is  so  overlaid  and 
smothered  by  our  sin  and  worldliness.  So  they  hang 
in  doubt  before  us,  and  we  do  but  blindly  feel  them, 
while  we  still  have  much  of  doubt  and  uncertainty 
about  them.  Our  own  future  life,  too,  rises  before  us 
covered  with  uncertainty  and  doubt,  and  we  can  only 
feel  that  it  is  true.  It  is  hard  to  feel  that  it  is  real,  — 
we  can  hope  in  it,  but  we  cannot  always  rest  in  the 
certainty  of  it.  Sometimes,  indeed,  we  can  wrap  our- 
selves, by  anticipation,  in  its  warmth  and  peace  and 
parity,  but  most  often  we  can  only  say  to  our  uncertain 
souls,  "  Wait,  it  is  coming,  it  will  come ;  and  then 
we  shall  know."  Nevertheless,  how  good  it  is  that  the 
light  of  God  and  of  the  other  life  can  reach  us  at  all, 
through  such  clouds  as  in  this  world  rise  around  our 
souls ! 

This  fact  of  the  uncertainty  and  doubt  in  which  life 
is  suspended  has  been  one  of  the  great  influences  that 
have  deeply  affected  the  lives  of  all  men.  How  much 
of  human  experience  has  been  due  to  this  uncertainty ! 
How  constant  an  influence  is  it  in  all  our  lives  !  God 
must  have  intended  it  as  a  part  of  our  experience,  and 
it  must  have  its  uses  in  our  life.     It  has  made  its  mark 


UNCERTAINTY.  109 

SO  deeply  in  our  lives  that  it  deserves  our  careful  con- 
sideratiou.  Do  we  rightly  understand  why  life  hangs 
in  doubt  before  us  ;  and  are  we  rightly  afl'ected  by  this 
great  and  constant  uncertainty  which  attends  our  per- 
sonal fortunes,  and  all  oui   thinking  ? 

It  may  be  a  dangerous  temptation  to  us.  Seeing 
how  uncertain  all  things  are  to  us,  we  may  insensibly 
come  to  think  that  they  are  really  as  uncertain  in  them- 
selves, and  that  there  is  no  certainty  in  anything  that 
concerns  us.  Have  not  many  persons  come  to  feel 
thus  ?  It  appears  to  them  that  all  events  happen 
without  plan  or  system  or  design.  They  feel  that  they 
live  in  a  fatlierless  world,  themselves  orphans,  with  no 
great  divine  care  over  them,  nothing  to  trust  in  or  to 
depend  upon.  Such  a  feeling  is  most  depraving  to  our 
characters.  In  such  a  view  man  seems  left  to  himself, 
thrust  out  into  life  to  fight  his  own  way  through  his 
difficulties  alone ;  and  it  affects  him  just  as  it  affects 
a  little  child  to  feel  that  he  has  no  father's  care,  no 
mother's  love,  no  home  in  the  world.  But  we  must 
remember  that  this  great  uncertainty  is  in  our  knowl- 
edge only.  God  does  reign  over  us,  and  there  is  a 
perfect  plan  for  the  world's  affairs.  It  is  only  because 
His  plan  is  so  large,  so  wide-reaching,  and  aims  at  so 
vast  results,  that  we  cannot  comprehend  it.  He  steadily 
pursues  His  purpose,  and  each  event  is  a  step  taken 
toward  its  accomplisliment.  Over  all  the  apparent 
confusion  and  uncertainty  that  fill  the  world  for  us, 
reigns  the  power  of  His  providence,  silently  governing 
all  its  least  affairs.  We  know  not  what  a  day  may 
bring  forth,  but  He  knows.  He  has  loaded  each  coming 
day  with  its  burden  of  events,  charged  each  separate 


110  GOD   IN   NATURE   AND  LIFE. 

hour  with  its  work  upon  your  life  and  mine.  He 
counts  His  stars  every  evening,  He  opens  His  hand 
every  morning  to  feed  His  countless  flocks.  He  knows 
when  the  lily  opens,  and  when  the  sparrow  falls.  He 
makes  the  outgoings  of  the  morning  and  of  the  evening 
to  rejoice,  and  over  each  of  us  keeps  ceaseless  watch 
and  care.  Oh,  the  great,  quiet,  infinite  power  and  peace 
that  overlies  and  wraps  the  world  !  God  is  there.  His 
providence  and  love  rest  over  all,  even  as  the  quiet 
summer  sunlight  lies  in  untroubled  peace  on  the  hills, 
while  the  busy  turmoil  of  life  goes  on  in  village  and 
valley  below.  To  Him  there  is  nothing  uncertain  or 
doubtful.  He  sees  the  end  to  which  these  apparently 
aimless  motions  lead.  And  we  are  not  orphans,  living 
unfathered  lives  in  a  fatherless  world.  Life  is  ripening 
its  fruits,  coming  to  a  determined  result,  and  it  is 
known  what  that  result  will  be.  There  is  a  way,  too, 
in  which  we  can  rise  up  into  that  great  peace  and  rest 
which  overlies  the  world.  Prayer  and  trust  in  God 
will  take  us  into  it,  and  make  us  feel,  amid  all  the 
uncertainties  of  life,  a  settled  confidence  in  its  safety 
and  success. 

So,  again,  this  great  uncertainty  may  and  does  become 
a  temptation  to  an  unreasonable  despair.  Seeing  how 
doubtful  every  hope  is,  and  how  uncertain  our  success, 
a  weak  and  fearful  heart  is  in  haste  to  conclude  that  it 
is  useless  to  pursue  great  purposes,  and  vain  to  strive 
for  any  great  good  of  character  or  usefulness.  How 
many  there  are  who  have  yielded  to  the  discouraging 
influence  of  this  uncertainty,  and  taken  up  some  little, 
narrow  plan  of  life,  abandoning  the  larger  hopes  and 
nobler  purposes  to  which  life  calls  them !     The  young 


UNCERTAINTY.  HI 

man  can  but  feel  the  aspiration  for  a  worthy  place  and 
noble  history  among  men.  His  gifts  urge  him  to  under- 
take some  life  in  which  they  can  have  free,  large  scope. 
But  he  sees  difficulties  and  uncertainties  in  the  way. 
He  fears  to  lose  his  labor  in  a  failure.  Tlie  prospect  of 
success  is  doubtful,  and  he  desponds,  and  turns  away  to 
find  a  Yil'e  in  living  for  such  cliances  of  happiness  as  lie 
within  reach  of  his  indolence.  How  utterly  has  he 
misunderstood  the  uncertainties  of  life !  If  a  great 
success  was  uncertain,  that  meant  that  it  might  be 
attained ;  it  meant  that  there  was  hope  in  striving  for 
it.  The  uncertainty  took  away  the  certainty  of  defeat, 
and  left  the  door  open  to  success.  Oh,  it  is  base  in  us 
to  take  up  and  accept  a  poor  little  narrow  life,  when 
the  best  of  which  we  are  capable  is  made  possible  to  us 
by  the  uncertainties  that  surround  us.  In  making  all 
things  thus  uncertain,  God  made  all  best  things  pos- 
sible, and  calls  upon  us  to  cherish  the  largest  hopes  and 
strive  for  the  highest  good. 

When  we  consider  what  effect  this  uncertainty  of 
life  has  had  upon  men,  we  cannot  but  see  how  it  has 
the  effect  to  hold  our  minds  in  a  constant  attitude 
of  expectancy.  There  is  always  something  coming, 
and  we  know  not  what  it  will  be.  It  is  impossible 
for  the  mind  to  shut  itself  up  in  the  present :  these 
uncertainties  compel  us  to  live  in  the  future,  to  be 
anticipating.  We  cannot  live  the  lives  of  the  brute 
creatures  around  us  who  have  no  hopes,  who,  born  for 
no  more,  for  no  otlier  life  than  this,  are  so  made  as  to 
live  wholly  in  the  present.  As  there  is  nothing  more 
for  them  to  expect,  so  they  do  not  feel  the  uncertain- 
ties of  the  world  and  the  future.     But  we  are  made  to 


112  GOD   IN   NATURE   AND   LIFE. 

feel  them,  and  this  is  one  reason  for  it,  that  we  have 
more  to  expect :  we  have  another  life  to  live,  and  must 
somehow  be  made  to  look  up  in  anticipation  of  it.  It 
is  as  if  God  had  said,  "  Now  I  have  made  man  for 
immortality  and  eternal  life ;  how  shall  I  get  him  to 
regard  his  immortality  ?  I  have  placed  him  in  this 
world ;  how  shall  I  get  him  to  look  beyond  it  ?  how 
keep  him  conscious  of  his  greater  future  ?  how  prevent 
him  from  giving  all  his  thoughts  and  all  his  heart  to 
things  of  this  world  ?  I  will  make  everything  un- 
certain to  him.  I  will  make  him  feel  that  he  can 
depend  on  nothing  here.  I  will  thus  keep  his  mind 
constantly  open  to  the  future,  so  tliat  he  must  feel 
its  influence  upon  him."  And  so  it  is.  The  uncer- 
tainties of  life  hold  us  in  the  attitude  of  expectancy,  — 
and  this  is  the  only  proper  attitude  for  a  soul  that  has 
so  much  in  the  future  to  expect.  It  is  in  this  attitude 
of  mind  that  we  are  prepared  to  take  hold  of  the  reve- 
lations of  immortality  and  feel  them.  There,  before 
us,  and  drawing  nearer,  is  the  vision  of  God  ;  the  tre- 
mendous scenery  of  final  judgment ;  the  long  ages  of 
eternity ;  the  purity  and  peace  of  heaven,  and  the 
dark  and  horrible  scenes  of  perdition  ;  and  the  uncer- 
tainties of  life  compel  us  to  be  looking  at  the  future 
and  inquiring  what  is  to  come.  Thus  do  we  get  sight 
of  these  great  realities,  and  feel  their  power.  How 
many  a  deep  experience  of  these  things  do  we  owe  to 
the  uncertainty  in  our  life,  which  has  driven  us  off  to 
seek  some  house  not  made  with  hands,  eternal,  where 
we  may  hope  to  rest  in  certain  security !  Our  pleas- 
antest  thoughts  of  heaven  have  arisen  in  our  hearts 
from  the  contrast  of  its  permanence  and  certainty  of 


UNCERTAINTY.  113 

bliss  with  the  uncertainty  that  makes  everything 
tremulous  here.  And  if  it  were  not  that  we  felt  the 
uncertainty  of  our  welfare  in  this  world,  we  should 
never  look  beyond  it.  We  should  not  be  open  to 
revelations  of  the  future,  nor  even  look  up  to  see  any 
future  before  us.  The  stormy  waves  that  toss  our 
souls  upon  their  ceaseless  unrest  make  us  long  for  the 
quiet  anchorage  of  the  heavenly  harbor.  The  uncer- 
tainties of  our  earthly  life  drive  us  to  seek  certainty 
in  heaven. 

Further,  the  uncertainties  of  our  life  have  had  the 
effect  to  lead  us  to  seek  for  stronger  convictions,  by 
the  study  of  truth,  and  the  use  of  the  means  God  has 
given  us  for  coming  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth. 
"What  is  the  interest  we  take  in  listening  to  any  in- 
struction, in  attendance  upon  religious  teaching,  in 
reading  books,  in  studying  the  Bible  ?  Is  it  not  the 
hope  of  coming  to  some  clearer  knowledge  and  more 
certain  conviction  of  the  truth  that  concerns  us  ?  The 
uncertainty  that  we  feel  leads  us  to  ask  for  greater 
certainty,  and  to  seek  after  it.  All  the  study  and 
labor  of  the  world  to  understand  and  express  truth 
has  been  caused  by  the  uncertainty  with  which  it 
was  invested.  It  would  not  have  been  as  well  to 
make  all  these  truths  perfectly  certain,  and  place 
them  beyond  doubt,  because  it  is  so  natural  to  us  to 
disregard  what  we  think  is  settled  and  certain.  Men 
do  not  think  of  what  is  not  doubtful.  The  most  cer- 
tain facts  in  the  world  are  the  least  considered,  and 
tlieir  causes  are  least  understood.  It  is  better  to  have 
some  uncertainty  of  mind,  some  question  of  truth,  if 
that  uncertainty  leads  us  to  study  it  in  the  Word  of 


114  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

God,  than  it  is  to  have  that  kind  of  certain  faitli 
which  leads  us  to  neglect  the  study  of  it  because  we 
think  it  needs  no  more  searching  out.  When  a  man 
in  science  has  examined  a  specimen,  classified,  named, 
and  labelled  it,  he  puts  it  away  and  thinks  no  more 
about  it :  it  is  lost  to  him.  But  if  he  has  a  doubtful 
specimen,  he  is  deeply  impressed  by  it,  and  cannot 
cease  from  thinking  of  it.  So  our  best  and  deepest 
convictions  of  God's  truth  have  arisen  from  the 
doubts  which  have  repeatedly  led  us  to  re-examine 
the  truth  and  thus  come  to  a  better  certainty.  How 
often  life  has  made  us  doubt  the  love  of  God !  and 
that  doubt  has  led  us  to  study  more  earnestly  this 
great  truth,  till  we  have  come  to  deeper,  sweeter  im- 
pressions of  it.  It  is  painful  to  doubt,  but  it  is  a 
blessed  thing  that  God  leads  the  earnest  soul  through 
its  very  doubts  to  certainty  and  rest.  The  faith  that 
comes  of  conquered  doubts  is  the  faith  that  has  power 
with  our  souls. 

But  the  great  lesson  of  the  uncertainties  of  life  is 
the  lesson  of  trust  and  rest  in  God.  We  have  deep 
need  of  some  sure  and  certain  rest  for  our  souls.  We 
cannot  find  it  in  the  world,  where  nothing  is  certain 
for  us.  We  cannot  find  it  in  our  own  convictions, 
where  there  is  always  more  or  less  of  doubt.  But  we 
can  find  rest  and  certainty  in  God.  He  will  take 
every  other  dependence  from  us,  that  He  may  be 
Himself  our  rest  and  confidence.  You  cannot  know 
whether  the  thing  you  hope  for  will  come  to  you  or 
not;  it  is  all  uncertain,  and  hangs  in  doubt  before 
you  :  yet  you  earnestly  desire  it,  and  deem  it  neces- 
sary  to  your  welfare.     It   is  torture  to   live  in  such 


UNCERTAINTY.  Hf. 

suspense.  But  now,  when  life  so  trembles  in  uncer- 
tainty, God  comes  to  you  and  says,  "  Leave  it  with 
me  ;  lay  here  your  burden.  You  cannot  know  how  it 
will  be,  but  you  can  know  that  I  will  decide  it.  Trust 
in  me."  Nothing  in  all  our  experience  has  brought  us 
so  often  to  God,  and  so  near  to  Hira,  as  our  uncertain- 
ties and  fears.  From  these  more  than  from  anything 
else  we  have  learned  to  submit  to  Him  our  lives  and 
fortunes,  and  to  trust  His  love  and  care.  He  is  our 
God,  and  His  love  is  our  supreme  good.  To  rest  in 
that  love  is  the  saints'  everlasting  rest.  To  confide  in 
Him  gives  the  sense  of  security,  even  in  heaven.  But 
we  should  never  seek  Him  and  learn  to  trust  Him,  if 
it  were  not  for  the  constant  finding  of  uncertainty  in 
everything  else.  And  this  lesson  of  trust  and  rest  in 
God  is  the  great  lesson  of  life,  which  completes  the 
soul's  education  and  fits  it  for  heaven.  Many  things 
are  necessary  to  the  perfect  heavenly  life,  but  first 
and  greatest  of  all  is  the  power  to  leave  everything 
to  the  will  of  God,  and  trust  him  completely  in  every 
condition.  Without  this,  our  anxieties  and  fears  would 
follow  us  into  heaven,  and  disturb  our  rest  even  amid 
its  blessed  conditions.  Our  ignorance  of  the  future 
must  always  make  it  uncertain  to  us.  The  soul's 
foundation  of  rest  must  be,  not  in  any  outward  state, 
but  in  God  and  His  love :  and  this  rest  can  be  entered 
only  by  confiding  trust.  Only  by  often-repeated  acts 
of  fiiith  in  God  can  the  habit  of  trust  be  attained  ; 
and  thus  the  uncertainties  of  our  life,  by  leading  us 
to  cast  our  care  on  God,  are  the  great  occasions  of 
our  growth  in  the  grace  of  confidence. 

There   is  sadness   in  this   hanging  of  life  in  doubt 


116  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

before  us.  How  uncertain  every  blessing  is !  The 
homes  which  are  to-day  so  safe  and  blessed  may  to- 
morrow be  broken  up  by  death  and  separation.  The 
growing  gains  of  life  may  be  scattered  to  the  winds. 
Everything  is  in  doubt  before  us.  But  what  matters 
it?  The  Christian's  soul  is  not  dependent  on  these 
things.  He  will  still  be  rich  and  strong  when  they 
are  gone.  He  can  afford  to  lose  them,  for  he  still  has 
God,  and  God  will  be  to  him  a  place  of  broad  rivers 
and  streams,  a  rich  and  fruitful  land,  a  safe  and 
pleasant  rest.  It  is  terrible,  only  when  the  soul  of  a 
man  has  nothing  but  the  uncertainties  of  life  to  depend 
upon,  when  he  has  no  hold  on  God,  and  no  rest  in  His 
love.  Then  indeed  it  is  dreadful  tliat  a  man's  whole 
existence  for  time  and  for  eternity  should  hang  in 
doubt  before  him,  with  nowhere  to  go  for  rest  and 
safety. 

How  is  it  with  us  ?  What  effect  is  the  uncertainty 
of  life  having  upon  us  ?  Has  it  discouraged  us  from 
our  highest  purposes  ?  Has  it  made  us  careless  ? 
Have  we  said,  "  It  is  too  doubtful,  I  will  just  live  for 
the  present,  and  let  all  higher  purposes  go  ? "  Let  us 
remember  that  at  least  one  thing  is  certain:  "The 
turning  away  of  the  simple  shall  slay  him."  That 
soul  will  perish  whose  doubts  lead  him  to  neglect  his 
God.  And  once  more  through  this  voice  of  life  God 
is  calling  us  to  Himself.  In  the  sacred  silence  of  this 
holy  Sabbath  He  is  saying,  "I  am  thy  God.  All 
earthly  things  are  vanity  and  vexation ;  I  am  thy  rest, 
and  in  me  is  a  great  and  certain  good.  Lay  thy  life  in 
the  hands  of  my  love,  and  give  thyself  to  me." 


WALKING  ON  THE  SEA.  117 


WALKING   ON   THE   SEA. 

And  Peter  answered  him  and  said,  Lord,  if  it  be  thou, 
bid  me  come  unto  thee  on  the  water.  And  he  said,  Come. 
And  when  Peter  was  come  down  out  of  the  ship,  he  walked  on 
the  water  to  go  to  Jesus.  But  when  he  saw  the  wind  boister- 
ous, he  was  afraid;  and  beginning  to  sink,  he  cried,  saying, 
Lord,  save  me.  And  immediately  Jesus  stretched  forth  his 
hand,  and  caught  him,  and  said  unto  him,  0  thou  of  little 
faith,  wherefore  didst  thou  doubt '^ — Matt,  xiv.  28-31. 

HOW  much  in  our  living  is  like  walking  on  the  sea ! 
It  would  be  difficult  to  find  a  comparison  that 
would  more  truly  illustrate  the  character  of  our  life. 
In  the  twenty-fourth  Psalm  it  is  said,  "The  earth  is  the 
Lord's,  and  the  fulness  thereof;  for  He  hath  founded  it 
upon  the  seas,  and  established  it  upon  the  floods."  The 
whole  universe  is  founded  on  the  ever-heaving  sea  of 
God's  own  being  and  power,  and  established  upon  the 
mighty  floods  of  His  eternal  flowing  energy.  The 
worlds  in  their  circuits  float  in  the  great  currents  of 
His  will.  The  infinite  ocean  of  God  is  that  which 
sustains  the  universe.  The  deeps  that  lie  beneath  the 
floating  worlds  are  the  great  deeps  of  His  power  and 
wisdom,  and  the  life  and  motions  of  the  planets  and 
the  stars  are  like  walking  on  the  sea.  The  earth  rests 
on  nothing  material ;  it  is  afloat  in  the  great  ocean  of 
space,  and  its  foundation  is  the  flood  of  power  which 


118  GOD   IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

impels  it  in  its  courses  and  sustains  it  in  its  orbit. 
The  earth  is  a  floating  island  in  the  "  great  and  wide 
sea "  of  natural  forces.  And  so  is  the  life  of  man. 
Under  man's  life  as  its  support,  as  the  source  of  its 
power  and  continuance,  lies  the  great  ocean  of  Life,  of 
God's  life,  on  which  it  is  founded,  in  which  it  lives  and 
moves  and  has  its  being,  and  on  which  it  is  a  floating 
island. 

And  so  when  we  look  for  the  foundation,  the  last 
and  real  support,  of  anything  in  the  universe,  it  is  not 
something  fixed  and  material,  but  something  fluid,  and 
like  the  sea  with  its  floods  and  deeps.  It  was  natural 
to  the  Son  of  God  to  walk  on  the  sea ;  it  was  like  His 
old  habit  when  He  laid  the  beams  of  His  chambers  in 
the  waters^  and  founded  the  earth  upon  the  floods. 
Everything  is  founded  on  a  sea,  and  it  was  natural  for 
Him  to  stand  and  walk  upon  it.  It  is  but  natural,  then, 
that  much  in  our  living  should  be  like  walking  on  the 
sea,  —  that  the  great  principle  that  is  impressed  upon 
the  natural  universe  should  appear  also  in  the  world  of 
life  and  spiritual  conditions.     And  so  it  does. 

He  who  walks  upon  the  sea  has  beneath  his  feet  no 
adequate  support,  and  is  every  moment  liable  to  sink 
beneath  the  floods  and  be  overwhelmed.  It  is  not 
possible  to  conceive  a  man  in  any  other  conditions 
wliere  each  moment  is  a  moment  of  such  hazard.  He 
has  nothing  but  his  dangers  to  walk  on.  Eight  over 
the  deeps  in  which  he  may  be  swallowed  up  he  must 
go ;  aud  he  is  liable  to  perish  not  only,  or  mainly,  by 
his  stumbles  and  bad  walking,  but  more  still  by  his 
mere  weight.  His  natural  tendency  to  sink  in  the  flood 
is  greater  than  the  power  of  the  waters  to  sustain  him. 


WALKING   ON   THE   SEA.  119 

As  we  tliink  of  Peter  coming  down  from  the  ship 
and  beginning  to  walk  on  the  water  to  go  to  Jesus,  is 
not  his  condition  the  very  type  of  danger,  of  fearful 
liability?  With  what  breathless  suspense  must  his 
brethren  have  watched  him  !  The  hungry  deeps  seemed 
to  rage  for  his  destruction.  The  darkness  of  niglit 
closed  round  the  fearful  experiment.  The  yielding 
waters  undermined  his  feet.  Beyond  his  dejDth,  beyond 
his  strength,  sinking  and  helpless,  his  feet  already  deep 
in  the  fearful  danger,  —  oh,  what  is  it  like  ?  If  we 
could  truly  see  the  condition  of  our  souls  in  this  world, 
we  should  see  how  perfect  a  type  of  our  danger  this 
scene  is.  Our  souls  are  just  like  Peter  on  the  sea. 
Our  worth  and  welfare  for  our  whole  existence  is  in 
the  same  exposure  and  danger  as  his  life.  God  sees 
us,  as  we  see  Peter  on  that  stormy  night  of  darkness, 
walking  on  the  sea.  He  sees  our  souls  exposed  to  sink 
beneath  the  floods  of  endless  sorrow,  living  on  the  edge 
of  this  awful  liability,  balancing  unsteadily  amid  the 
temptations  and  dangers  of  life,  and  over  us  the  dread 
and  solemn  question  yet  unanswered,  Will  we  be  saved, 
or  sink  in  the  black  gulfs  of  outer  darkness  to  rise 
nevermore  ?  It  would  be  thought  a  dreadful  thing  if 
some  one  were  to  place  you  or  me  on  the  water  in  the 
middle  of  a  sea  like  that  of  Galilee,  and  give  us  only 
that  one  chance  of  life,  —  to  walk  on  the  water  to  the 
land.  But  is  not  this  something  like  our  living  in  this 
world  ?  Are  we  not  placed  amid  unholy  influences, 
temptations,  trials,  and  must  we  not  walk  above  and 
upon  these,  and  maintain  our  integrity,  or  else  sink 
beneath  their  power  in  moral  degradation,  to  the  ruin 
of  our  souls  forever  ?     Are  we  able  to  walk  the  floods 


120  GOD  IN   NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

of  corrupt  influence,  of  depraved  life,  of  false  thinking 
in  this  world,  alone,  any  better  than  Peter  was  to  walk 
the  water  of  Galilee  ?  God's  holy  law  demands  that 
we  should  be  holy  too,  and  if  we  are  not  holy  we  are 
condemned,  and  the  wrath  of  God  abideth  on  us.  Sin, 
when  it  hath  conceived,  bringeth  forth  death,  and  sin  is 
already  in  our  hearts  and  lives.  Our  feet  are  already 
deeply  covered  in  the  waters  of  depravity  and  danger. 
With  God's  condemnation  making  darkness  and  storm 
around  us,  with  sin  working  death  within  us,  with  the 
gulf  of  moral  ruin  and  endless  sorrow  under  our  feet, 
and  with  our  feet  already  wading  in  that  sorrow  and 
ruin,  are  our  liabilities  to  perish  in  eternal  death  less 
than  Peter's  liabilities  to  perish  in  the  sea  ? 

Tliere  was  a  little  time  between  the  moment  when 
Peter  stepped  down  upon  the  waters  and  the  moment 
when  he  took  hold  of  the  hand  of  Christ,  in  which  his 
life  hung  in  awful  suspense,  while  life  and  death  swayed 
in  the  balance.  That  little  time  is  precisely  like  our 
whole  life,  from  the  time  we  begin  to  know  right  and 
wrong  until  we  either  take  hold  of  Christ  or  sink  for- 
ever below  His  reach.  We  are  living  in  the  same 
liability  to  sink  and  be  overwhelmed.  In  the  supports 
on  which  a  soul's  eternal  welfare  rests  in  this  life 
there  is  no  more  stability  or  security  than  the  waves 
of  the  sea  afforded  to  Peter.  The  attributes  of  God, 
His  justice,  His  goodness,  are  not  under  us  for  our 
support,  because  we  live  in  opposition  to  His  will. 
His  providence  and  care  are  no  security  to  us,  because 
we  have  rejected  His  care  and  undertaken  to  live 
without  Him.  As  impenitent  souls,  we  are  "without 
God    in   the  world ; "  and  without  His    care,  without 


WALKING   ON  THE   SEA.  121 

His  power,  what  is  there  to  keep  us  from  sinking  in 
tlie  depths  of  sin  and  misery  ?  We  walk  forward  in 
life  loaded  with  the  great  and  solemn  interests  of  an 
endless  existence.  We  have  so  much  to  lose  or  to 
secure,  such  an  infinite  good  to  carry  safely  over  the 
waves  of  life,  and  such  an  infinite  evil  to  fear  if  we 
fail;  there  is  so  little  in  ourselves,  so  little  in  the 
world,  on  which  we  can  depend,  that  our  life  is  like 
walking  on  the  sea.  Let  every  man  ask  himself  what 
it  is  upon  which  his  soul  is  standing.  Especially  let 
every  one  who  does  not  trust  in  Christ  ask  himself 
this  question.  Is  there  anything  really  firm  and  stable 
on  which  you  can  rest  your  future  welfare  ?  Do  you 
feel  that  your  standing  is  sure  and  safe  ?  Are  you 
any  way  confident  that  you  can  go  through  life  with- 
out losing  your  soul  ?  Is  not  your  condition  like  stand- 
ing on  the  sea  ?  The  very  uncertainty  and  insuffi- 
ciency of  such  a  support  is  what  you  feel.  If  constant 
danger  and  liability  to  perish  is  the  strong  character- 
istic of  walking  on  the  sea,  so  is  this  the  characteristic 
of  our  living  while  we  live  alienated  from  God.  For 
a  little  while  a  man  can  keep  himself  above  the  sur- 
face, but  how  surely  and  how  soon,  if  he  has  no  help, 
will  he  sink  down  and  perish  in  the  floods  ! 

There  is  this  fearful  interest  and  apprehension  in 
rightly  seeing  the  condition  of  men.  They  are  on  the 
sea,  and  are  trying  alone  to  walk  over  its  dangers. 
There  is  no  support,  nothing  but  danger  under  their 
feet.  How  fast  they  are  sinking  in  the  flood !  How 
fast  they  are  disappearing  from  the  world,  perishing  in 
their  sin  and  misery  !  And  these  around  us  are  on 
the  same  treacherous  sea,  sinking  all  the  while  deeper 


122  GOD   IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

in  the  danger,  vainly  trying  to  save  their  lives,  and 
losing  them  by  the  very  means  they  use  to  save  them, 
their  poor  moralities,  their  self-delusions. 

But  this  fearful  liability  to  perish  is  not  the  only 
feature  of  life  that  is  illustrated  by  walking  on  the 
sea.  He  who  walks  on  the  sea  must  venture  his  life 
amid  dangers  and  uncertainties;  and  the  same  neces- 
sity of  venturing  amid  dangers  and  uncertainties  is 
also  a  characteristic  of  our  living.  We  cannot  always 
have  solid,  certain  ground  to  go  upon ;  we  must  often 
walk  upon  the  sea,  often  go  forward  without  certainty, 
without  satisfactory  assurance.  Such  is  the  plan  of 
life,  that  every  advance  must  be  a  venture.  Between 
us  and  the  thing  we  seek  is  always  a  region  of  uncer- 
tainty, of  danger  and  venture ;  and  on  these  uncertain- 
ties and  dangers  and  ventures  we  must  walk,  like 
walking  on  the  sea. 

A  man's  hopes  and  fears  are  always  coming  down 
out  of  the  ship  to  walk  on  the  sea  of  uncertainties 
before  us ;  and  in  so  much  as  he  lives  in  his  hopes 
and  fears,  his  living  is  like  walking  on  the  sea.  If  we 
looked  for  our  own  spirits,  we  should  very  often  find 
them  leaving  the  solid  shore  of  present  good  and 
present  life,  and  walking  out  upon  the  unknown  and 
uncertain  sea  of  future  good  and  evil.  The  greater 
part  of  every  man's  interior  life  is  spent  in  walking- 
over  the  darkening  sea  of  the  past  or  the  uncertain 
possibilities  of  the  future.  We  are  far  more  familiar 
with  hopes  and  fears,  memories  and  anticipations,  than 
with  anything  else.  Our  actual  lives  are  too  small  for 
us.  They  are  like  very  small  islands  in  the  great  sea. 
We  cannot  be  content  with  so  little  ;  we  go  forth  in 


WALKING   ON  THE   SEA.  123 

conjectures,  in  imaginations,  in  visions,  in  hopes,  upon 
the  great  sea  around  us.  The  time  and  thought  and 
feeling  spent  in  these  conjectures  and  fancies  is  so 
much  walking  on  the  sea.  There  is  nothing  fixed  or 
solid  under  this  portion  of  our  lives  ;  and  yet  this  is 
the  greater  portion.  It  is  natural  for  our  spirits  thus 
to  venture  on  the  future  by  conjecture  and  hope ;  and 
this  fact  in  our  experience  may  serve  to  impress  us 
with  the  truth  that  all  our  living  is  a  venture. 

In  all  human  enterprises,  whether  for  public  or 
private  benefit,  men  must  venture  their  property  or 
their  labor  or  their  lives.  They  must  go  out  beyond 
their  own  power,  and  risk  themselves  or  their  posses- 
sions upon  uncertainties  which  they  cannot  control, 
and  wliicli  may  fail  to  sustain  them.  Like  those  who 
sow  rice  upon  the  sea,  depending  upon  the  seed  to 
sink  down  into  the  soil  and  spring  up  when  the  sea 
has  receded,  men  have  to  cast  their  bread  upon  the 
waters  and  risk  its  loss,  that  they  may  increase  it. 
Xor  can  men  escape  this  necessity.  All  these  enter- 
prises are  like  walking  on  the  sea,  because  they  require 
us  to  trust  ourselves  beyond  our  own  power  of  self- 
sustaining.  How  much  too  in  our  studies  after  truth 
is  like  walking  on  the  sea,  —  a  going  forth  of  the  mind 
upon  doubts  and  uncertainties  and  mere  probabilities, 
that  like  the  waves  of  the  sea  are  forever  shifting 
under  our  feet !  Our  intellectual  life  must  be  a  ven- 
ture also,  and  we  are  obliged  to  walk  as  on  water  until 
we  find  a  standing  on  some  rock  of  truth  that  has 
become  certain  to  us. 

This  same  necessity  of  venturing  which  is  character- 
istic of  the  attempt  to  walk  on  the  sea  applies  with 


124  GOD   IN   NATURE   AND   LIFE. 

equal  force  to  the  religious  life.  We  cannot  see  God, 
or  His  presence,  or  His  providence.  We  cannot  see 
the  other  world,  or  anything  in  it.  To  the  senses  and 
to  the  mind,  the  actual  presence  of  God  in  our  lives, 
the  actual  help  of  God  in  answer  to  our  prayers,  are 
invisible,  and  incapable  of  proof  by  the  ordinary 
methods.  We  must  venture  upon  God's  help  and 
grace  without  seeing  it,  or  visible  signs  of  it.  We 
must  act  as  under  His  eye,  without  ever  meeting  its 
glance.  We  must  depend  upon,  and  hope  for,  that 
which  we  see  not.  All  the  great  facts  upon  which 
the  Christian  life  depends  are  invisible  and  spiritual, 
and  yet  we  must  treat  them  all  as  realities,  and  go 
forth  acting  upon  them  just  as  if  they  were  solid  as 
the  earth.  This  is  like  walking  on  the  sea  as  if  it 
were  solid  ground. 

As  guilty  sinners,  we  must  venture  our  souls'  sal- 
vation upon  the  grace  and  help  of  Christ,  and  that 
without  seeing  Him.  It  seems  to  men  like  trying  to 
walk  on  the  sea,  to  trust  themselves  thus  to  Him ;  but 
we  cannot  come  to  Him  in  any  other  way  than  by 
venturing.  The  suspicion  that  He  may  not  hear  us, 
or  if  He  does  that  He  may  not  save  us,  does  indeed 
make  our  going  to  Him  like  walking  on  the  sea. 
It  is  trusting  our  souls  out  beyond  our  power  to  sus- 
tain ourselves  ;  but  every  soul  must  "  walk  on  the  water 
to  go  to  Jesus,"  must  venture  on  all  the  uncertainties 
that  it  feels,  for  there  is  no  other  way  of  getting  to 
Him.  So  in  all  Christian  living  there  is  a  continual 
venturing  beyond  our  own  power,  a  trusting  to  the 
unseen  and  to  us  uncertain  realities  of  the  spiritual 
world.     And  thus  the  plan  of  our  life  is  plainly  seen 


WALKING  ON  THE   SEA.  125 

to  be  such  as  to  require  of  us  continually  to  venture 
beyond  our  own  power  to  sustain  ourselves,  —  even  as 
Peter  did  when  he  came  down  out  of  the  shijj  and 
walked  on  the  water  to  go  to  Jesus. 

He  who  walks  on  the  sea  is  not  only  liable  to  perish 
in  its  depths,  and  obliged  to  venture  beyond  his  own 
power  to  sustain  himself,  but  for  this  very  reason  he 
must  be  sustained  by  some  power  above  his  own,  and 
above  that  of  the  sea  on  which  he  walks.  The  sea  will 
partly  sustain  a  man,  and  a  man  can  do  a  little  to  sus- 
tain himself  in  the  water ;  but  he  will  as  surely  sink  at 
last  as  if  the  sea  gave  him  no  support  and  he  himself 
could  do  nothing.  And  by  this  fact  our  life  is  still 
further  illustrated.  It  is  true  that  w^e  can  do  a  little 
to  keep  ourselves  from  sinking  in  the  depravity  and 
guilt  of  the  world ;  but  it  is  also  true  that  our  natural 
tendency  to  sink  into  sin  and  neglect  of  God  is  stronger 
than  our  natural  disposition  to  rise  above  it.  AVe  are 
already  heavy  with  our  sin  and  depravity,  and  placed 
as  we  are  amid  temptations  and  constant  sinful  influ- 
ences, if  we  have  no  help  from  without,  nothing  is 
more  certain  than  that  we  shall  sink  continually 
deeper  in  sin  and  ruin.  The  world  will  uphold  us 
in  holy  living  no  better  than  the  waters  of  Galilee 
upheld  Peter.  If  we  trust  to  the  general  influence 
and  example  of  the  world,  we  might  as  well  trust 
our  persons  to  the  sea.  Its  waves  would  uphold  our 
bodies  as  long  and  well  as  the  world  would  uphold 
our  souls  in  lioliness.  Has  your  character  so  strong 
a  love  for  holiness  that  it  cannot  be  overcome  by  the 
temptations  of  life  ?  Do  you  need  no  help  of  God  ? 
Can  you  do  without  His  grace,  and  escape  from  your 


126  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

own  moral  impurity  and  the  evil  in  the  world  ?  If 
you  cannot  trust  yourself,  can  you  depend  upon  the 
course  of  this  world,  and  its  influences,  to  make  you 
fit  for  heavenly  life  hereafter?  If  you  are  unwilling 
to  perish  forever,  must  you  not  help  yourself  by 
taking  hold,  as  Peter  did,  of  Christ  ?  You  must  have 
something  besides  your  own  power,  something  besides 
the  help  of  the  world ;  and  what  is  there  in  all  the 
universe  that  you  can  take  hold  of  but  Christ  ?  Who 
else  offers  any  help  ?  Where  is  any  other  name  under 
heaven  among  men  ?  On  the  dark  midnight  sea  of 
human  danger,  who  else  comes  through  the  danger, 
walking  on  the  waves  toward  us  ?  If  we  reject  His 
help,  who  else  will  come  to  save  us  ?  We  must  either 
cry  unto  Him  in  humble  prayer,  or  sink  forever  under 
the  curse  of  sin,  in  the  despair  of  the  lost. 

Since,  then,  the  very  conditions  of  life  make  it 
necessary  that  we  should  be  liable  to  perish,  that  we 
should  continually  venture  beyond  our  own  power, 
and  that  we  should  have  help  from  God,  on  what 
other  principle  can  we  live  than  the  principle  of 
faith  ?  If  we  have  not  faith  enough  to  act  upon 
where  we  must  venture,  we  shall  have  nothing  to 
uphold  us  in  acting  at  all.  If  we  have  not  faith 
enough  in  God  to  support  us  in  holy  living,  we  are 
left  alone  to  sink  beneath  the  floods  of  sin  and 
misery  forever.  We,  in  the  midst  of  our  great  dan- 
gers, and  destitute  of  all  earthly  help,  are  like  Peter 
on  the  sea,  and  like  him  also  we  sink  when  we 
doubt.  For  it  is  plainly  implied  that  the  reason  why 
he  began  to  sink  was  that  he  began  to  doubt ;  and 
in  sinking  because  he  doubted  he  was  as  true  a  type 


WALKING  ON  THE  SEA.  127 

and  illustration  of  the  great  law  according  to  which 
all  men  sink  or  are  sustained,  as  in  walking  the  sea 
he  typified  and  illustrated  the  conditions  of  life. 

"  liy  faith  ye  stand,"  and  ye  sink  when  ye  douht. 
This  is  because  in  the  natural  constitution  faith  is 
the  supporting  power  in  living.  lie  who  undertakes 
any  enterprise,  whatever  means  he  has  of  carrying 
it  forward,  will  give  it  up  and  fail  when  he  loses 
faith  in  it.  With  all  that  he  has  done  and  gained, 
he  will  sink  down  and  his  enterprise  will  perish,  be- 
cause he  doubted.  He  had  the  means  of  completing 
it,  but  he  had  not  the  means  of  completing  his  own 
action.  It  is  faith  that  works,  and  no  amount  or  per- 
fection of  means  to  any  end  will  be  of  any  avail,  if 
we  have  not  faith  to  work  with  them.  Consider  in 
your  own  experience  what  faith  does  to  the  soul. 
How  it  cheers  and  strengthens  every  faculty  and 
feeling !  how  it  carries  the  heart  easily  over  dis- 
couragements and  oppositions !  how  strong  confidence 
makes  life  imperial  and  sovereign,  exultant  and  safe  ! 
A  soul  under  doubt  is  like  the  body  when  it  is  faint- 
ing. The  heart  beats  weak  and  painfully,  the  hands 
hang  down  and  the  feeble  knees  tremble,  the  eyes 
are  dim  and  the  world  grows  blank  and  empty. 
When  faith  comes,  when  some  strong  confidence 
enters  the  soul,  life  and  power  and  cheerfulness  re- 
turn; we  rise  up  to  newness  of  life,  and  the  blank 
world  grows  bright  and  full  with  interests  and  hopes. 
Thus  it  is  a  perfectly  natural  principle  that  men 
should  sink  when  they  doubt. 

And  no  man  really  sinks  until  he  does  doubt.  A 
man  may  be  defeated  in  his  purpose,  or  hindered  by 


128  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

great  and  growing  difficulties ;  yet  lie  does  not  sink, 
even  when  his  plans  are  broken  in  pieces  by  the  sea 
and  float  all  apart  like  a  broken  raft,  —  he  does  not 
sink,  unless  he  loses  the  faith  of  life,  unless  he 
admits  doubt  into  his  heart.  And  so  if  we  speak  of 
the  Christian  life  as  it  is,  as  a  natural  life,  we  shall 
see  why  we  sink  when  we  doubt.  Our  faith  in  God 
and  His  presence,  love,  and  care,  is  the  natural  support 
of  our  souls  in  holy  living.  If  we  admit  doubt  of  Him 
into  our  hearts,  we  sink  into  religious  weakness  and 
under  temptation,  not  because  He  has  taken  anything 
away  from  us,  but  because  we  have  left  our  natural 
support.  The  soul  of  the  impenitent  sinks  deeper  ai;d 
deeper  into  the  depths  of  depravity  and  ruin  for  this 
reason  among  others,  that  it  uses  no  faith  in  God,  and 
so  has  not  the  great  natural  support  of  a  soul  against 
the  world,  the  flesh,  and  Satan.  A  soul  that  has  no 
faith  in  God  as  its  God  and  Christ  as  its  Saviour,  falls 
to  sinful  living  and  final  ruin  just  as  naturally  —  and 
on  the  same  principle  —  as  a  vine  falls  to  the  ground 
and  grovels  and  perishes  in  the  dust  when  it  ceases 
to  cling  to  the  tree  that  held  it  upright.  Does  not 
this  principle  show  us  why  our  Lord  said,  "  He  that 
believeth  shall  be  saved,  and  he  that  believeth  not 
sliall  be  damned "  ?  Are  not  those  saved  from  sink- 
ing into  sin  and  ruin  who  do  use  faith  in  God ;  and 
do  not  they  who  use  no  faith  in  Him  naturally  fall 
away  from  Him  into  sinful  living  and  liopeless  aliena- 
tion ?  Is  not  faith  in  God,  faith  in  His  presence  and 
help,  faith  in  His  redemption,  the  soul's  natural  sup- 
port and  salvation,  and  without  it  will  not  a  soul 
perish  naturally  ?     Ah,  yes,  we  shall  perish,  if  we  do 


WALKING   ON  THE   SEA.  129 

perish,  not  because  we  are  imperfect,  not  merely  be- 
cause we  are  sinners,  but  because  God  is  our  natural 
and  only  help,  and  of  that  help  we  will  not  take 
hold. 

If  men  sink,  like  Peter,  when  they  doubt,  this  is 
sometimes  because  God  gives  help  or  withholds  it  ac- 
cording to  our  faith ;  that  is,  according  to  our  confi- 
dence in  Him  or  our  distrust  of  Him.  In  some  places 
of  our  life,  if  we  are  to  be  kept  from  sinking,  God 
must  give  us  special  help,  must  reach  forth  His  hand 
and  hold  us  up  as  He  did  Peter.  But  in  such  cases 
the  principle  of  God's  grace  is  to  give  us  support  ac- 
cording to  the  measure  of  our  faith.  He  gave  Peter 
power  to  walk  on  the  sea  so  long  as  Peter's  confidence 
in  Him  was  unquestioning  and  complete  ;  but  when 
he  began  to  be  afraid  and  lose  confidence,  Christ 
withdrew  His  help  in  the  same  degree,  and  thus,  be- 
ginning to  doubt,  he  began  to  sink.  God  gives  us 
natural  support  of  soul  according  to  our  faith.  On 
what  principle  should  He  bestow  extra  and  special 
help  ?  Should  He  give  it  without  regard  to  our  con- 
fidence in  Him  ?  Should  he  make  no  difference  be- 
tween the  soul  that  trusts  Him  entirely  and  the  soul 
that  treats  Him  M'ith  distrust  ?  He  will  indeed  save 
all  those  who,  conscious  of  sinking,  cry  to  Him  as 
Peter  did.  But  it  is  one  thing  to  go  to  Him  under 
the  pressure  of  dread  necessity,  and  another  thing  to 
go  to  Him  in  the  use  of  complete  and  unquestioning 
confidence.  If  we  ever  sink  for  want  of  the  special 
grace  of  God,  we  must  know  that  He  withholds  it  be- 
cause of  some  distrust  in  our  hearts.  Nothing  that  God 
can  do  for  us  will  do  us  any  good,  unless  it  increases 

9 


130  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

our  confidence  and  familiar  trust  in  Him.  To  gain 
that  familiar  confidence  in  Him  as  the  great  element 
of  our  life  is  the  substance  of  life  eternal.  That  we 
may  learn  this  is  the  object  of  all  our  discipline. 
And  therefore  He  deals  with  us  in  accordance  with 
our  faith  in  Him. 

Any  who  are  here  this  morning  yet  unreconciled  to 
God  need  a  very  great  and  special  exercise  of  His  grace, 
because  they  need  entire  and  eternal  forgiveness  for  all 
their  sins.  This  is  no  common,  no  natural  favor  of 
God ;  but  will  He  give  you  that  great  grace  and  favor 
unless  you  show  confidence  by  going  to  Him  and  asking 
it  ?  I  do  but  tell  you  the  plainest  truth  when  I  say 
that  He  will  sooner  leave  every  one  of  you  to  perish 
forever  than  pardon  you  in  your  unbelief,  in  your  im- 
penitent distrust  of  His  sincerity.  You  do  not  believe 
that  He  is  sincere  in  threatening  eternal  ruin  to  the 
impenitent ;  you  do  not  believe  that  He  is  sincere  in 
offering  you  now  pardon,  adoption,  and  eternal  life. 
How,  then,  can  He  bestow  these  upon  you  while  you 
so  distrust  and  doubt  Him  ? 

And  many  a  Christian  wants  a  deeper  sense  of 
spiritual  realities,  a  sweeter  sense  of  God's  nearness 
and  Christ's  presence,  a  stronger  apprehension  of 
heavenly  life  and  joy.  Will  He  give  you  these  special 
favors  while  you  indulge  distrust  of  Him,  of  the  reality 
of  His  presence  or  the  sincerity  of  His  promises  ?  You 
must  and  will  sink,  in  your  sense  of  all  these  truths,  as 
you  doubt,  and  He  will  leave  you  to  sink,  until  your 
poverty  and  danger  shall  bring  you  to  cry  for  His 
help. 

But  it  will  perhaps  appear  strange  to  you  that  all  our 


WALKING  ON  THE  SEA.  131 

welfare  and  all  God's  favors  should  be  contingent  upon 
our  believing.  Perhaps  we  cannot  believe,  for  want  of 
evidence  to  our  minds.  We  think  that  faith  is  a  ques- 
tion of  evidence,  and  the  exercise  of  faith  dependent 
upon  laws  of  evidence ;  that  since  faith  is  an  intel- 
lectual exercise,  it  is  therefore  wrong  that  a  man  should 
be  condemned  for  not  believing,  and  saved  because 
he  holds  certain  opinions.  But  all  such  thinking  is 
plainly  an  evasion  of  the  truth.  Our  own  hearts  teach 
us  that  in  all  practical  questions,  whether  of  worldly 
or  religious  interests,  the  exercise  of  faith  is  a  question 
of  disposition  far  more  than  of  evidence.  The  amount 
of  faith,  of  confidence  amidst  the  uncertainties  of  life, 
that  a  man  shows,  is  not  an  exhibition  of  his  mind,  but 
of  his  disposition.  In  all  the  ventures  of  life,  men 
exercise  faith  not  so  much  according  to  the  clearness  of 
their  opinions  as  according  to  the  inclination  of  their 
dispositions  and  affections.  So  it  is  in  regard  to  all 
religious  questions.  We  are  asked  to  submit  our  lives 
and  wills  to  God,  to  yield  our  own  plans  of  life  to  what 
He  chooses  for  us.  We  have  to  believe,  in  order  to 
do  this,  that  He  is  our  God,  our  Sovereign,  our  lawful 
Lord,  and  that  His  will  is  wisest  and  best.  Now,  as  to 
whether  we  actually  put  our  confidence  in  Him  so  as 
tlnis  to  yield  to  Him,  —  how  much  is  this  a  matter  of 
opinion,  and  how  much  of  disposition  ?  Christ  comes 
to  us  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  offers  us  pardon 
and  adoption  and  eternal  life  if  we  will  take  up  our 
cross  and  follow  Him.  Here  is  to  each  of  us  an  offer 
of  salvation  on  condition  of  our  submission  to  Christ. 
How  much  is  it  a  matter  of  opinion  with  you  or  me, 
whether  we  will  put  our  confidence  in  Him,  and  how 


132  GOD  IN  NATURE   AND   LIFE. 

much  more  is  it  a  question  of  disposition  ?  Exercising 
faith  is  putting  confidence  in  the  object  of  faith ;  and 
we  put  confidence  in  anything  by  our  will,  according 
to  our  inclination.  If  we  were  disposed  to  do  so,  we 
could  put  our  confidence  in  Christ  and  become  His 
disciples.  Do  but  observe,  when  you  have  exercised 
faith,  and  you  will  see  that  your  exercise  of  faith  was 
the  outgrowth  of  a  disposition  far  more  than  of  any 
opinion.  Opinions  and  evidences  have  their  influence  ; 
but  when  the  moment  comes,  and  we  do  put  confidence 
in  anything  that  is  practical  to  us,  it  is  not  our  opinion 
so  much  as  our  disposition  that  decides  us  to  do  so. 
And  since  it  is  true  that  our  faith  and  our  distrust  are 
the  expressions  of  our  disposition,  it  is  just  that  God 
should  deal  with  us  according  to  our  faith  and  our 
doubts,  —  that  he  that  believeth  should  be  saved,  and 
he  that  believeth  not  should  be  condemned.  I  know 
that  this  explanation  does  not  make  the  case  of  men 
any  better.  If  the  difficulties  of  believing  were  in  im- 
perfect evidences,  then  unbelief  and  doubts  would  have 
some  excuse,  and  we  could  help  men  by  bringing  them 
better  evidence.  But  when  men's  dispositions  prevent 
their  putting  their  confidence  in  Christ,  what  can  we 
do  for  them  but  betake  ourselves  to  God,  and  pray  that 
He  will  change  their  hearts  ?  And  if  they  ask,  *'  What 
shall  we  do  ?  If  it  is  our  dispositions  that  prevent 
our  believing,  still  they  prevent  us,  and  can  we  change 
our  dispositions  ?  What  shall  we  do  ? "  there  are  but 
two  things  that  you  can  do :  either  make  up  your  mind 
to  perish  forever,  and  take  that  doom  with  all  its  woe 
to  your  heart,  or  else  do  as  Peter  did,  —  call  out  to 
Christ  earnestly,  "Lord,  save  me,  or  I  perish!" 


WALKING   ON  THE  SEA.  133 

We  are  walking  on  the  sea :  beneath  our  feet  are  the 
deeps  of  danger  and  of  ruin,  arouud  us  is  the  darkness 
of  this  world.  Our  own  weight  sinks  us  in  the  flood. 
On  the  issue  depends  eternal  good  or  evil.  On  the 
waves  our  Lord  comes  to  us,  and  seeing  us  in  our 
danger  he  says,  as  he  said  on  the  Sea  of  Galilee, 
"  Come."  Let  us  take  hold  of  His  hand,  let  us  cling 
to  Him  in  close  discipleship,  walking  with  Him  on  the 
stormy  sea  of  earthly  life,  until  we  step  off  with  Him 
upon  the  sea  of  glass  mingled  with  fire,  and  with  them 
who  have  gotten  the  victory  sing  with  the  harps  of 
God  the  song  of  Moses  the  servant  of  God  and  the 
sons  of  the  Lamb. 


13 J:  GOD   IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 


LESSONS   FEOM  THE   SUMMER 
The  summer  is  ended.  —  Jeremiah  viii.  20. 

AND  we  have  gathered  its  bounteous  harvests,  and 
stored  them  away  for  the  times  when  what  we 
have  gathered  will  be  all  we  have.  If  the  summer  has 
any  lessons  to  teach  us,  let  us  gather  these  also.  Fruits 
of  wisdom  and  truth  are  surely  as  valuable  as  the  fruits 
and  grains  of  the  earth.  We  want  more  than  our  daily 
bread,  our  food  and  raiment.  When  a  man  has  eaten 
and  drunk,  and  sits  down  amid  all  his  physical  com- 
forts, then  he  wants,  just  as  much,  something  to  think 
of,  something  pleasant  and  profitable  for  his  spirit  to 
digest  in  reflection. 

He  who  created  us  had  to  contrive  for  our  support, 
and  to  contrive  variety  of  foods  and  flavors ;  and  so 
He  bade  the  earth  bring  forth  the  vast  varieties  of  its 
products  in  vegetable  and  animal  life,  and  gave  them 
all  to  men.  One  thing  alone  might  have  been  sufficient 
to  support  us.  Man's  life  could  have  been  maintained 
with  corn  alone,  had  the  earth  produced  nothing  else ; 
but  certainly  man's  life  would  have  been  a  very  dif- 
ferent and  a  very  dreary  thing  had  it  been  so.  So  He 
who  created  us  had  to  provide  for  the  support  of  our 
thinking,  our  intellectual  and  spiritual  life,  and  to 
contrive    to   give   us   variety   of    thought,   variety   of 


LESSONS   FROM  THE   SUMMER.  135 

moods  and  feelings.  One  thought  eternally  repeated 
might  keep  a  man's  mind  alive.  One  mood,  one  feel- 
ing, prolonged,  might  keep  the  soul  from  annihilation. 
But  surely  life  with  just  one  thought  and  just  one 
feeling  prolonged  through  days  and  years  and  centuries 
would  be  a  dreary  life.  One  of  the  divine  contrivances 
to  give  us  variety  of  thought,  a  continual  succession  of 
new  thoughts,  and  frequent  changes  of  our  moods  of 
feeling,  is  in  the  influence  God  has  given  to  the  outer 
world  upon  our  minds  and  hearts.  God  created  this 
great  Nature  around  us,  filled  it  with  His  own  presence 
and  power  and  wisdom,  set  it  in  busy  motion  and  per- 
petual change,  and  then  brought  our  spirits  into  it  to 
be  set  thinking  and  studying  by  it,  that  our  feelings 
might  be  awakened,  our  sentiments  touched,  and  our 
souls  instructed  by  the  influence  of  the  world  upon  us. 
There  are,  therefore,  vast  and  varied  teachings  in  Nature 
for  us.  The  mind  is  and  ought  to  be  perpetually 
gathering  the  golden  grains  of  new  thouglit  and  pure 
feeling  from  the  elements  and  objects  of  the  earth 
around  us. 

But  we  are  made  also  for  a  much  higher  life  than 
this  mere  life  in  Nature,  for  other  thoughts  and  higher 
feelings  than  natural  objects  alone  can  give  us.  We 
are  immortal,  and  we  belong  to  God.  We  have  to 
think  of  Him  and  our  relations  to  Him,  and  of  the 
life  to  come,  and  of  all  the  interests,  wants,  dangers, 
and  hopes  that  God  and  immortality  add  to  our  life. 
But  natural  things  are  the  symbols  of  spiritual  truths. 
The  laws  of  Nature  are  tlie  true  symbols  or  illustra- 
tions of  higher  spiritual  laws ;  and  when  the  light 
of  revelation  shines  upon  the  world,  lo!  the  world  is 


136  GOD   IN  NATURE   AND   LIFE. 

full  of  God  and  His  wisdom,  full  of  divine  symbols 
of  eternal  things.  So  Christ  looked  upon  the  world. 
The  lily  blooming  in  its  peerless  beauty,  the  withering 
grass,  tlie  weathered  rock,  were  in  His  sight  the  speak- 
ing symbols  of  those  higher  truths  which  He  used 
them  to  illustrate.  God  uses  the  same  letters  with 
which  to  spell  both  natural  and  spiritual  things,  and 
invisible  things  of  God  are  clearly  seen  in  their  sym- 
bols and  representatives  in  things  that  are  made.  So 
there  are  spiritual  truths  and  lessons  to  be  gathered 
with  our  harvests  of  fruits  and  grains.  The  summer  is 
ended,  but  its  harvests  will  not  be  all  gathered  if  we 
do  not  gather  its  spiritual  teachings  into  our  hearts. 

"The  summer  is  ended,"  its  work  is  doue.  And  it 
has  had  so  much  to  do !  The  millions  of  mankind  and 
the  innumerable  myriads  of  the  animal  world  have 
liad  to  be  fed  daily,  and  provided  for  through  the  long 
winter  that  is  coming.  So  much  has  been  daily  con- 
sumed, and  so  much  has  had  to  be  at  the  same  time 
ripened  and  stored  for  the  future  ;  so  many  myriads 
of  Nature's  little  ones  have  had  to  be  tended  like 
children,  warmed  and  waited  on,  their  activity  and 
their  rest  secured  and  guarded,  and  their  lives  brought 
forward  to  such  strength  as  will  enable  them  to  pass 
the  ordeal  of  the  winter.  Who  can  estimate  the  sum- 
mer's work  ?  How  vast,  how  almost  infinite !  The 
changes  wrought  on  the  earth  by  the  summer  now 
ended  have  touched  everything,  the  mountains  and 
tlie  valleys,  the  sea  and  the  land.  Every  single  plant 
on  earth,  and  every  single  creature,  has  been  wrought 
upon  and  changed  in  its  conditions  by  the  summer's 
work.     And  with  all  that  the  summer  has  had  to  do, 


LESSONS  FROM   THE   SUMMER.  137 

it  has  done  it  without  haste,  without  waste  of  energy, 
without  neglecting  anything.  The  most  beautiful  fact 
in  Nature  is  Nature's  rest  and  leisure  in  her  work. 
With  all  the  tremendous  energies  at  work  in  Nature, 
what  a  scene  of  rest  and  peace  is  each  summer's  day  ! 
The  sun  moves  over  the  heavens,  counts  all  his  leaves 
and  lambs  each  day,  and  yet  we  cannot  see  him  move, 
and  he  will  never  be  hurried.  The  summer  works  in 
the  earth,  quickening  all  its  seeds,  driving  forward 
the  growth  of  everything  around  us ;  but  we  lie  down 
amid  all  this  mighty  work,  and  it  seems  to  us  that 
nothing  is  being  done,  because  all  is  leisurely,  and 
there  is  no  haste.  The  summer  has  had  time  to  cul- 
tivate and  paint  all  the  flowers,  time  to  spend  in  mak- 
ing the  earth  beautiful,  time  enough  not  only  for  one 
purpose  or  two,  but  for  every  purpose.  The  summer 
has  not  singled  out  any  one  branch  of  business  and 
given  itself  to  that  exclusively,  but,  living  for  all  that 
God  has  assigned  to  it,  has  done  all  its  duties  and 
been  hurried  in  none.  In  all  its  work  this  great  quiet 
and  rest  has  lain  like  a  Sabbath  on  the  world.  Be- 
cause the  earth  has  lain  and  lived  and  moved  in  God, 
in  communion  with  Him,  in  harmony  with  His  will 
and  obedience  to  His  laws,  turning  itself  ever  toward 
Him,  opening  itself  in  all  its  depths  to  His  presence 
and  power,  —  therefore  has  the  earth  done  its  work 
without  disturbance  or  haste,  and  the  very  spirit  of 
rest  and  leisure  has  been  upon  it. 

"  The  sunmier  is  ended,"  its  work  is  done ;  and  one 
of  its  lessons  teaches  us  the  true  spirit  that  we  ought 
to  take  into  our  business  and  work.  Neither  God 
nor  necessity   requires   of  us  the   feverish   haste,   the 


138  GOD  IN  NATURE   AND  LIFE. 

exhausting  hurry,  which  more  and  more  is  coming  to  be 
the  style  of  life  and  the  characteristic  of  business.  In 
comparing  life  at  present  with  what  it  was  when  many 
of  us  were  young,  it  is  easy  to  see  how  much  more 
time  and  leisure  there  seemed  to  be  in  the  lives  and 
business  of  men  than  there  is  now.  One  cannot  con- 
sider how  in  these  days  time  presses  upon  life,  without 
a  painful  fear  of  the  consequences  to  all  the  higher 
interests  of  men.  In  all  departments  we  see  men 
giving  all  things  up  to  business,  sacrificing  everything 
to  one  purpose,  one  pursuit.  They  have  no  time  for 
anything  but  their  business,  and  are  hurried  in  that. 
The  family  life,  the  quiet  domestic  circle,  which  both 
men  and  women  need  and  in  which  they  are  needed,  — 
this,  with  all  its  happiness  and  usefulness  to  children, 
is  sacrificed  to  the  hurry  of  business.  In  the  world, 
every  public  interest  and  enterprise  is  neglected,  for 
men  feel  that  they  have  no  time  to  attend  to  them. 
In  the  Church  the  most  solemn  covenant  vows  and 
obligations  are  broken  and  disregarded,  because  pro- 
fessed Christian  men  are  so  carried  away  by  the 
spirit  of  hurry  in  business  that  they  have  no  time. 
Men  have  souls  to  be  cultivated  in  knowledge  and 
grace,  but  they  have  no  time.  They  have  the  cause 
of  religion  to  serve,  but  they  have  no  time.  Life  is 
swept  away  from  all  its  true  rests  by  the  vehement 
stream  of  eagerness  for  wealth.  Men  are  borne  in  a 
whirlwind  of  haste  through  the  days  and  years,  to  be 
arrested  by  tlie  hand  of  death  at  last,  and  set  before 
the  judgment-seat  of  Christ  with  so  many  of  life's 
duties  undone,  and  their  accounts  with  God  so  unpre- 
pared.    So  insane  has  this  spirit  of  haste,  this  eager- 


LESSONS   FROM   THE   SUMMER.  139 

ness  in  business,  become,  that  it  is  of  little  use  to 
reason  with  it.  If  we  should  ask  men,  "  Suppose  you 
sliould  not  do  all  this  business,  suppose  you  should 
not  be  in  such  haste,  suppose  you  should  leave  your 
business  sometimes,  and  attend  to  some  other  of  your 
interests  and  obligations  ? "  it  is  doubtful  whether  they 
would  understand  us,  or  even  wait  to  entertain  the 
question. 

Out  of  this  too  eager,  too  hurried  spirit  of  business 
and  money-making,  sooner  or  later  will  come  some 
terrible  curse  on  the  world,  and  on  the  fortunes  of 
men  who  are  carried  away  with  it.  Because  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  world  is  a  moral  government,  such  sins 
have  brought,  and  will  ever  bring,  the  judgment  of 
God  upon  men.  If  the  summer  should  turn  all  its 
energies  to  raising  one  kind  of  grain,  and  neglect  all 
other  things,  this  would  be  as  unnatural  as  it  is  for  us 
to  give  all  the  energies  and  interests  of  our  life  to 
business,  neglecting  the  interests  of  our  souls  and  the 
claims  of  God.  Let  us  not  be  swallowed  up  with  one 
thing;  let  us  live  slower,  and  take  time  for  all  the 
legitimate  purposes  of  life,  for  our  social  duties  and 
privileges,  for  our  religious  needs  and  duties.  We 
gain  nothing  by  all  our  haste  and  care  and  excitement 
in  business,  and  we  lose  the  real  good  of  life.  The 
spirit  of  rest  and  leisure  is  necessary  to  the  right  dis- 
charge of  our  duties.  We  have  so  great  need  to  learn 
Nature's  secret  of  laboring  without  toiling,  doing  her 
work  without  anxiety  or  fretting  haste,  the  secret  of 
doing  our  work  without  exhausting  ourselves  in  doing 
it.  The  secret  is  betrayed  by  Nature's  complete  sub- 
jection to  and  harmony  with  the  will  of   God.     The 


140  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

Christian  spirit  will  do  for  us  what  that  does  for 
Nature.  In  that  spirit  we  shall  "  be  anxious,"  in 
haste,  "for  nothing,"  but  shall  quietly  occupy  tlie 
present  moment,  and  rest  in  our  work. 

We  are  constantly  saying,  as  the  excuse  for  neglect  of 
our  duties,  that  we  have  no  time.  The  summer  says  to 
us.  There  is  plenty  of  time  for  all  your  real  duties,  for 
every  proper  purpose  of  life  ;  only  do  not  waste  it  in 
idleness,  or  abuse  it  by  attempting  in  covetous  haste  to 
overcrowd  it  with  activity. 

"  The  summer  is  ended,"  and  its  fruits  and  seeds  in 
uncounted  myriads  are  ripened,  and  ready  to  begin  a 
new  life  of  their  own.  How  many  seeds,  each  capable 
of  a  new  and  separate  life,  the  summer  has  perfected ! 
And  in  regard  to  all  these  seeds  we  must  observe  this 
fact,  that  each  one  blossomed  in  a  flower  before  it 
could  be  perfected  in  fruit.  No  seed  has  been  ripened 
in  secret ;  every  one  has  been  compelled  to  open,  and 
express  itself  in  a  flower.  The  power  and  life  of  God 
has  wrought  unseen  and  silent  to  produce  all  the  in- 
numerable seeds  and  fruits  that  cover  the  earth ;  but 
yet  in  no  case  has  any  seed  or  fruit  been  produced 
without  opening  its  veiy  heart  to  the  light  and  air 
and  sun  in  a  blossom.  The  flower  of  the  plant  is  not 
only  interesting  because  it  is  beautiful  in  its  perfect 
grace  and  delicate  colors,  but  also  because  the  flower 
is  the  birth,  the  quickening  to  life,  of  the  seed.  The 
flower  opens  itself,  but  opens  to  receive  the  light  by 
which  the  life  is  quickened.  An  unopened  flower 
smothers  and  strangles  its  seeds  to  death.  The  won- 
derful mystery  of  life  in  Nature  is  expressed  in 
flowers.     The  petals  of  the  flower  are  the  red   lips  of 


LESSONS  FROM   THE   SUMMER.  141 

tliat  great.  Life,  and  it  opens  them  to  express  itself, 
to  speak  its  name  and  show  its  wondrous  nature. 
And  so  the  summer  teaches  us  that  one  great  law  of 
life  is  self-expression.  All  life  must  come  out  into 
expression,  take  on  some  form  and  show  itself. 
Whatever  exists,  or  would  come  into  existence,  must 
declare  itself  by  appearing  in  some  shape,  opening 
out  as  a  flower.  Whatever  does  not  take  on  some 
form,  and  express  itself  in  some  manner,  does  not 
come  into  life,  but  fails  to  get  into  the  world,  and 
sinks  back  to  nothing. 

Everywhere  in  Nature  it  is  so.  Rocks  express  them- 
selves in  mountain-lines  and  towering  peaks.  Stars 
blossom  in  the  night,  and  express  themselves  in  lines 
that  go  out  into  all  the  earth  and  unto  the  extremity 
of  the  heavens.  The  winds  express  themselves  in 
sighs  around  our  dwellings ;  and  the  invisible  elec- 
tricity blossoms  in  the  lightning  and  speaks  out  in 
the  thunder.  The  flower  blossoms,  the  bird  sings,  and 
to  man  God  gave  the  mystery  of  speech  and  the 
power  of  action,  that  through  these  he  might  express 
himself,  and  so  attain  to  ripeness  and  perfection  for 
the  soul  within  him.  The  seed  that  never  blossoms 
never  comes  to  life,  but  perishes ;  and  so  the  life,  tlie 
capacities,  the  principles  in  us  that  are  not  in  some 
form  expressed  in  our  life  perish  and  are  lost. 

This  lesson  becomes  interesting  and  important  when 
we  reflect  how  much  of  life  and  thought  and  feeling 
and  purpose  in  the  souls  of  men  is  suppressed,  and 
never  carried  forward  into  expression  or  into  action. 
God  has  given  us  action  and  speech  as  ways  in 
which   to   express   the  desires  and  aspirations  of  our 


142  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

souls,  and  in  one  or  both  of  these  ways  it  is  possible 
for  us  to  give  full  expression  to  what  is  within  us. 
But  suppression  is  death. 

We  may  feel  the  stirrings  of  a  new  and  better  pur- 
pose within  us.  Our  souls  begin  to  plan  a  better  life, 
holy  thoughts  awake  within,  the  hold  of  evil  habits 
grows  for  the  moment  weak.  Ah,  how  hopeful  is  the 
state  of  the  soul!  it  seems  all  ready  to  blossom  out 
into  a  new  life.  But,  alas !  it  does  not  act ;  it  hesi- 
tates and  falters  when  the  moment  for  action  comes ; 
it  suppresses  the  new  and  better  impulse.  So  the 
seed  of  a  better  life  is  destroyed,  the  soul  remains 
barren,  its  life  has  perished.  How  many  desires  to 
reform  come  into  the  heart  of  persons  under  the 
power  of  evil  habits  !  Such  desires  are  the  unripened 
seeds  of  a  better  life,  but  those  desires  require  to  be 
expressed  in  action  ;  and  here  the  soul  fails,  refuses 
to  act,  and  the  new  desire  perishes.  There  are  so 
many  souls  that  often  have  these  strong  and  earnest 
wishes  for  a  higher,  better  life  ;  and  if  wishes  and 
longings  would  save  them,  they  would  be  saved.  But 
God  requires  that  their  wishes  be  expressed  in  action  : 
they  must  arise,  and  depart,  and  change  their  life ; 
and  this  they  are  not  willing  to  do.  But  to  suppress 
these  desires  is  death.  As  surely  as  the  refusal  of  a 
flower  to  open  will  miu'der  all  the  unripened  seeds,  so 
surely  will  the  refusal  of  a  soul  to  obey  its  convic- 
tions and  better  desires  smother  those  convictions  and 
desires. 

I  have  seen  this  summer  in  my  wandering  studies 
a  flower-bud,  apparently  all  ready  to  open,  tightly 
bound  and  strongly  held,  so  as  to  be  unable  to  open, 


LESSONS  FROM   THE   SUMMER.  143 

by  a  parasitic  vine  which  the  plant  itself  had  nour- 
ished. The  little  parasite  vine  coiled  like  a  serpent 
around  the  flower-bud  and  choked  it  so  that  it  could 
not  open  to  the  sun ;  therefore  it  could  ripen  no  seed, 
—  its  seeds  all  perished.  Ah,  how  many  souls  permit 
themselves  to  be  bound  and  restrained  from  action  in 
obedience  to  their  convictions  by  some  parasite  pas- 
sion or  indulgence  !  With  one  it  may  be  covetous- 
ness,  a  greedy  desire  for  property ;  with  another  it 
may  be  pleasure,  the  choking  serpent  of  self-indul- 
gence ;  with  another  it  may  be  fear,  a  moral  cow- 
ardice. Oh,  my  brother,  what  is  the  parasite  that  is 
choking  and  suppressing  your  soul  ?  Cry  to  God ! 
Cast  it  off!  Let  us  fear  infinitely  more  to  smother 
the  life  of  our  souls,  than  to  expose  ourselves  before 
men  by  obeying  our  conscience  and  the  call  of  God. 

In  the  higher  religious  life  this  law  of  self-expression 
is  equally  true  and  important.  The  soul  must  open  it- 
self in  some  expression  of  its  religious  thoughts,  desires, 
and  purposes,  for  here  too  suppression  is  death.  If 
the  heart  that  God  has  graciously  touched  and  wakened 
remains  closed,  shut  up  within  itself,  it  will  smother 
to  death  its  religious  feelings  and  life.  And  it  is  sad 
to  think  of  the  many  souls  who  do  suppress  and  con- 
ceal their  religious  thoughts  and  emotions.  I  sincerely 
wish  all  young  persons  who  hear  me  now,  and  especially 
all  young  men,  would  take  this  affectionate  counsel,  — 
that  they  will  make  some  honest  and  thorough  expres- 
sion of  their  real  religious  condition.  It  is  so  great 
an  evil  for  young  people  to  suppress  their  souls  in  this 
respect.  They  often  feel  themselves  misjudged  and 
misunderstood,  and  thus  grow  discouraged  or  reckless 


144  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND   LIFE. 

about  the  opening  of  their  hearts.  And  they  mis- 
judge themselves  as  badly  as  they  are  misjudged  by 
others,  and  suppress  all  expression  of  their  experience ; 
and  thus  their  higher  desires,  their  spiritual  discern- 
ments, the  beginnings  of  what  miglit  become  true 
Christian  character,  are  smothered  and  destroyed.  It 
would  be  well  if  we  would  all  frequently  express  our- 
selves, even  if  it  were  only  to  ourselves, — if  only  by 
record  in  some  private  journal  of  our  real  religious 
condition.  Many  persons  do  not  know  what  is  in 
their  hearts ;  they  suppress  their  religious  feelings  even 
from  themselves.  It  would  be  better  still  if  you 
would  go  further,  and  open  your  heart  to  some  one 
who  would  be  interested  to  sympathize  with  you.  Is 
there  no  friend,  no  praying  father  or  mother,  no  pray- 
ing Christian,  no  teacher  or  minister,  to  whom  you 
would  be  willing  to  disclose  your  real  religious 
thoughts  ?  Let  it  be  to-day !  It  may  be  that  some 
parent  or  friend  has  long  been  anxious  for  your  con- 
fidence. You  may  be  taken  away  with  a  stroke,  and 
your  soul  never  have  been  opened  at  all.  Suppression 
is  death.  Often  you  feel  inclined  to  open  your  heart ; 
it  is  a  great  evil  when  you  resist  the  inclination  and 
smother  your  soul  with  suppression.  It  may  be  there 
is  the  beginning  of  a  new  life  stirring  in  the  bottom  of 
your  soul ;  and  if  there  is,  it  must  come  out,  it  must 
blossom  in  some  expression  of  itself,  or  perish  like  a 
seed  that  never  blossoms. 

And  let  us  take  notice  how  almost  all  the  flowers 
open  upward,  looking  toward  the  sun.  So  let  us  open 
our  souls  to  God  in  prayer,  and  His  grace  will  shine 
into   our   hearts   like   the   sun   of  righteousness,  with 


LESSONS  FROM   THE   SUMMER.  145 

quickening  and  life-giving  power.  It  is  not  enough 
that  a  plant  should  have  every  principle  and  capacity 
that  is  necessary  in  order  to  ripen  its  seeds ;  having 
all  these,  if  it  does  not  blossom  to  the  sun  it  will 
perish,  and  all  its  seeds  with  it.  It  is  not  enough 
that  a  man  or  woman  should  have  religious  desires 
and  feelings  and  purposes;  those  desires  must  come 
forth  into  expression,  confession,  prayer,  or  they  will 
remain  fruitless  and  perish.  We  must  speak,  we  must 
pray.  "  He  that  asketh  receiveth."  "  Whosoever  shall 
confess  me  before  men,  him  will  I  confess  before  my 
Father." 

"  The  summer  is  ended ; "  yes,  its  long  bright  days 
spread  upon  the  hills  are  past,  its  myriad  flowers  and 
singing  birds  are  gone,  its  fields  are  stripped,  its  forests 
bare.  Summer  is  so  beautiful,  winter  so  cold  !  What 
makes  the  difference  ?  Why  is  the  earth  so  alive,  so 
beautiful  in  summer,  so  dead  and  cold  in  winter  ? 
There  is  but  one  great  cause,  and  that  is  that  in 
summer  the  earth  turns  its  face  directly  to  the  sun, 
looks  straight  up  to  him,  and  is  filled  with  his  warmth 
and  power ;  while  in  winter  the  earth  averts  its  face 
from  the  sun,  and  losing  the  light  of  his  countenance  is 
cold  and  dead.  The  summer  is  ended,  but  has  left  us 
this  lesson  :  if  we  want  summer  in  the  soul,  we  must 
turn  our  souls  full  face  to  God,  we  must  let  our  souls 
look  up  to  Him  all  the  day  long.  And  if  it  is  winter 
in  the  spirit,  —  barren,  cold,  and  dark,  —  it  is  because  we 
are  turned  away  from  Him.  For,  "  When  I  am  happy 
in  Him,  December's  as  pleasant  as  May."  God  is 
a  sun ;  and  oli,  how  our  souls  need  sunshine  and 
light    and  power !     How  dark  the  world  without  the 

10 


146  GOD  IN   NATURE   AND   LIFE. 

sun,  and  the  soul  without  God !  Let  us  turn  unto 
Him,  and  He  will  have  mercy  upon  us,  and  we  shall 
not  perish. 

"  The  summer  is  ended,"  and  its  harvests  are  now 
the  dependence  and  provision  of  mankind  for  the  long 
months  to  come,  in  which  the  earth  will  yield  us  noth- 
ing. So  has  God  willed  it  that  one  season  should  af- 
ford the  supplies  for  another,  and  that  men  should  lay 
up  in  store  for  times  to  come.  We  have  had  in  summer 
our  opportunities,  a  time  when  we  could,  if  we  would, 
provide  for  ourselves,  a  time  to  labor  in  hope.  Now  all 
our  opportunities  are  gone  ;  we  can  plant  and  sow  no 
more.  The  fruit  of  our  labor  is  what  we  have,  and  we 
have  no  more.  The  earth  must  live  for  months  to  come 
on  the  fruit  of  its  labor  in  months  past,  and  there  is 
not  a  particle  of  food  for  men  beyond  what  men  have 
labored  to  produce.  The  summer  is  ended ;  a  season 
of  opportunity,  a  day  of  probation,  is  past.  And  life 
is  such  a  summer,  and  closes  with  such  a  harvest, 
and  is  followed  by  even  such  a  long  season  in  which 
we  eat  of  the  fruit  of  our  doings,  —  a  season  where- 
in we  have  for  our  comfort  or  affliction  what  we 
have  provided  for  ourselves  by  our  behavior  in  this 
world.  Life  is  our  summer.  All  our  opportunities 
for  the  whole  duration  of  it  are  given  to  us  here. 
What  a  man  can  do  for  himself  he  must  do  now. 
If  he  sows  to  the  Spirit  to  reap  life  everlasting,  he 
must  sow  in  the  seed-time,  and  before  the  Spirit  is 
grieved  away.  When  life  is  past,  and  he  goes  forward 
into  the  life  beyond  and  stands  before  the  snow-white 
throne  of  God,  his  portion  there  shall  be  tlie  harvest  of 
his  deeds  here.     And  the  seed-time  is  always  so  short. 


LESSONS  FROM  THE   SUMMER.  147 

So  many  of  us  there  are  whose  summers  are  ended, 
and  we  are  only  lingering  through  the  autumn  days 
till  the  shroud  shall  fall  upon  us  with  the  winter's 
cold.  Our  opportunities  are  passing,  —  are  they  not 
all  past  ?  Is  it  not  already  too  late  ?  No,  no :  to-day 
if  ye  will  hear  His  voice,  harden  not  your  heart.  He 
will  hear  yours  if  you  cry  to  Him.  But  sure  as  time 
passes,  time  will  be  past,  and  it  will  be  too  late.  I 
beseech  you  all,  seek  Him  to-day.  Let  the  dying  sum- 
mer, the  wailing  winds,  the  fallen  leaves,  the  clouded 
skies,  admonish  you  that  your  summer  is  passing  and 
your  life  near  its  end.  The  great  eternity  is  close 
before  us.  The  gates  are  open,  and  our  feet  are  inevi- 
tably tending  to  them.  Oh,  blessed  soul,  that  when  the 
summer  is  ended  goes  home  to  the  mansions  of  God, 
filled  and  furnished  for  all  eternity  with  the  riches  of 
His  infinite  grace.  Oh,  poor  lost  soul,  that  when  life 
is  past  cries  out  of  its  anguish,  "  The  harvest  is  past, 
the  summer  is  ended,  but  I  am  not  saved !" 

"  The  summer  is  ended,"  and  how  many  things 
ended  with  it !  How  many  belated  fiowers  just  ready 
to  open  are  cut  off  and  dead ;  how  many  unripe  seeds 
destroyed;  how  many  beginnings,  young  plants  just 
starting  in  life,  blighted  forever  I  All  that  is  not 
perennial  in  plants,  all  that  is  not  thoroughly  ripened 
in  seeds,  is  perished  now ;  nothing  that  is  not  ripe,  or 
else  in  its  nature  perennial,  can  meet  the  test  of  cold 
and  death.  And  so  death  comes  like  winter,  harmless 
to  the  soul  ripe  by  the  grace  of  God,  harmless  to  him 
who  is  secure  in  his  hold  upon  eternal  life,  but  cutting 
off  without  hope  all  that  have  delayed  too  long.  The 
poor  belated  flower  might  say  as  the  cold  approaches, 


148  GOD   IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

"  Oh,  give  me  but  a  few  days  more  and  I  will  open,  and 
perfect  my  seeds ;  I  am  almost  ready  now."  But  win- 
ter and  cold  wait  for  no  belated  flower,  and  death  and 
despair  wait  for  no  belated  soul.  Like  the  summer, 
life  ends  when  the  time  comes,  not  when  men  are 
ready  for  it.  If  life  should  end  now  with  us,  how 
many  unfinished,  unpractised  purposes  would  it  de- 
stroy !  We  have  delayed  and  postponed  from  year  to 
year,  but  the  summer  will  end.  What  have  you  laid 
up  in  store  ?  What  will  become  of  you  when  summer 
is  past  ?  Well,  at  least,  God  is  willing  if  you  are  not ; 
He  would  save  you  if  you  would  be  saved,  and  He  will 
save  us  now  if  we  will  come  to  Him. 

"  The  summer  is  ended."  Well,  so  be  it.  Blessed 
be  God  !  heaven  and  home  are  nearer  to  the  Christian 
tiian  when  the  summer  opened.  When  the  new  season 
comes,  it  will  find  him  planted  as  a  tree  of  life  in  the 
garden  of  God,  the  dew  all  night  on  his  branches,  and 
the  sunshine  of  heaven  all  day  upon  his  fadeless  leaves. 
There  "he  bringeth  forth  his  fruit  in  his  season,  and 
whatsoever  he  doeth  shall  prosper." 


THE  LESSON  OF  THE  LEAVES.  149 


THE   LESSON   OF   THE   LEAVES. 
We  all  do  fade  as  a  leaf.  —  Isaiah  Ixiv.  6. 

THIS  comparison  seems  to  have  been  suggested  to 
the  mind  of  the  prophet  by  his  deep  conviction 
and  experience  of  the  frailty  of  man's  life,  as  it  arises 
from  the  want  of  that  holiness  which  is  the  only  ele- 
ment of  security  and  permanence  to  mankind.  Because 
man  is  morally  unsound,  therefore  he  is  physically  frail 
and  mortal,  and  "  fades  as  a  leaf."  "  But  we  are  all 
as  an  unclean  thing,  and  all  our  righteousnesses  are  as 
filthy  rags;  and  we  all  do  fade  as  a  leaf;  and  our 
iniquities,  like  the  wind,  have  taken  us  away." 

The  consciousness  of  our  mortality  and  weakness  is 
always  sad,  because  we  cannot  exclude  from  it  the 
attending  consciousness  of  sin  as  its  cause  and  its 
worst  evil.  The  interests  of  our  life  are  so  many  and 
so  great,  it  is  apparently  so  important  to  ourselves  and 
to  others  that  we  should  be  secure  in  our  lives,  we 
have  purposes  so  great  to  accomplish,  and  so  much  to 
attain,  that  it  seems  something  strange  and  sad  that  a 
life  freighted  with  important  interests  should  be  so 
frail,  so  like  a  leaf.  Yet  it  is  so :  everywhere  the 
leaves  are  falling,  and  they  are  falling  on  new-made 
graves.  The  sobbing  of  the  autumn  winds,  the  tone 
of  wailing  with  which  they  gather  the  clouds  and  heap 


150  GOD   IN  NATURE   AND  LIFE. 

the  falling  leaves,  does  but  express  in  outward  form  tbe 
spirit  of  life  in  the  world  of  the  affections.  We  cannot 
help  sympathizing  with  Nature  as  subject  to  the  same 
vanity,  mutability,  and  decay  as  that  under  which  we 
groan.  The  same  great  law  of  change  spreads  itself 
over  us  as  over  it.  The  same  God  made  man  and  the 
tree,  and  ordained  the  conditions  of  life  for  both.  The 
two  are  brought  into  association,  not  only  because  they 
originated  from  the  same  God,  but  because  they  are  in 
some  respects  subject  to  the  same  law.  "We  all  do 
fade  as  a  leaf." 

A  tree  is  a  living  being ;  it  is  one  of  God's  creatures. 
It  is  endowed  with  life,  though  that  life  be  low  in  grade, 
with  properties  few  and  simple.  It  is  a  real  life,  as 
truly  as  that  of  an  animal  or  a  man.  And  as  it  is  a 
law  of  being  to  all  forms  of  life,  that  they  shall  reach 
their  perfection  by  converting  the  elements  of  the 
world  into  their  own  substance,  so  for  the  tree  there  is 
a  growth  whicli  is  a  living  growth,  a  growth  that  is 
gained  by  converting  the  elements  of  earth  and  air 
into  its  own  substance,  and  is  marked  by  distinct  and 
different  periods ;  and  it  pleased  God  that  the  different 
periods  in  the  life  of  a  tree  should  be  marked  by  dif- 
ferent generations  of  leaves.  One  set  of  leaves  endures 
only  through  one  period  or  season  of  the  growth,  and 
yet  the  leaf  is  to  the  tree  the  very  organ  of  life  and 
growth.  It  is  by  the  leaf  that  the  tree  is  enabled  to 
gather  from  the  elements  the  food  of  its  life  and 
growth,  and  yet  the  leaves  fade  and  perish  at  the  close 
of  each  season.  The  reason  why  one  generation  of 
leaves  does  not  serve  the  tree  through  its  whole  life, 
or  why  a  new  set  of  leaves  every  season  is  produced, 


THE   LESSON   OF   THE   LEAVES.  151 

lies  unspoken  in  the  mind  of  God.  So  it  seemed  best 
to  Him. 

The  luiman  race  is  a  tree  of  life,  rooting  itself  far 
back  in  the  life  of  God.  The  nations  of  the  earth  are 
the  grand  divisions  of  its  trunk,  and  families  are  its 
branches.  The  different  periods  of  its  existence  and 
growth  are  marked  by  the  different  generations  of 
individuals.  We  are  all  leaves  of  this  tree  of  life,  and 
"  we  all  do  fade  as  a  leaf."  The  race  remains  like  the 
tree,  the  generations  die  like  the  leaves.  Some  fade  in 
the  blight  of  the  pestilence  that  wasteth  at  noonday, 
thousands  are  torn  and  whirled  away  by  the  storms  of 
war,  some  wither  beneath  the  frosts  of  time,  but  all 
fade  at  the  touch  of  death.  The  earth  is  one  mighty 
sepulchre.  The  city  and  the  cemetery,  the  village  and 
the  graveyard,  grow  populous  together. 

Frail  and  tremulous  as  a  leaf,  amid  the  uncertainties 
of  our  life,  we  are  but  creatures  of  a  day,  destroyed  by 
a  breath.  "  We  all  do  fade  as  a  leaf"  How  vain  the 
busy  projects  of  mankind,  the  climbing  ambitions  of 
the  great,  the  world-building  of  the  wise,  appear  under 
the  dread  shadow  of  death,  beneath  which,  in  their 
turn,  the  generations  have  faded  as  a  leaf !  A  frail  and 
tremulous  leaf  of  humanity  myself,  and  you  as  frail,  as 
surely  marked  for  falling,  we  have  come  through  falling 
leaves  and  the  fading  year,  to  hear  the  voice  of  inspira- 
tion declare,  "  We  all  do  fade  as  a  leaf."  For  just  one 
moment  let  the  sense  of  your  utter  insecurity  have 
place  in  your  heart.  Feel  how  you  already  tremble  to 
fall.  See  the  subtle  presence  of  death  all  around  you. 
You  are  fading,  you  are  dying.  Tlie  pleasant  places  in 
your  houses  where  you  move  will  soon  be  vacant.     The 


152  GOD  IN  NATURE   AND  LIFE. 

home  will  remain,  but  you  not  there  forevermore.  A 
little  longer,  and  not  a  leaf  will  hang  on  all  the  pleasant 
trees;  and  just  a  little  longer  and  we  shall  all  be  in 
the  ground.  Let  us  catch  this  view  of  life ;  it  is  truth- 
ful, it  is  necessary.  It  will  correct  the  presumption 
into  which  we  are  ever  falling.  It  will  add  sobriety 
to  all  our  anticipations  in  this  world,  and  tenderness 
to  all  our  affections.  It  will  draw  us  to  God,  with  a 
better  sense  of  what  He  is  to  us,  and  of  the  infinite 
value  of  His  loving  care. 

Leaves  do  not  fade  because  of  the  various  special 
reasons  that  might  be  given,  but  because  it  is  the 
nature  and  law  of  their  being  to  fade.  It  is  their  true 
destiny  to  give  place  to  other  generations,  to  fall,  and 
render  back  their  substance  to  the  soil  for  the  enriching 
of  the  tree.  This  is  the  design  of  God  for  them.  The 
leaf,  having  served  the  tree  in  its  life,  serves  it  with  all 
it  has  to  bestow  in  its  death.  Its  substance,  through 
decay,  may  enter  into  the  circulation  of  the  tree,  and 
reappear  in  the  new  leaf  that  occupies  in  the  next 
season  its  old  place ;  and  this  fact  reveals  the  real 
purpose  and  value  of  its  existence.  It  exists,  and  has 
a  value  that  entitles  it  to  existence,  because  it  serves 
the  growth  and  welfare  of  the  tree.  It  lives  to  be 
useful.  It  lives  not  for  itself,  it  finds  its  own  greatest 
perfection  in  its  greatest  usefulness.  It  was  created  to 
be  useful,  and  must  find  its  own  best  good  in  being  so. 

This  also  is  the  law  of  human  life.  We  are  leaves 
of  the  great  tree  of  humanity.  God  has  given  us  our 
individual  existence  that  we  may  add  something  to  the 
welfare  and  progress  of  the  human  race ;  and  our  only 
real  right  to  life  is  derived  from  the  fact  that  we  are  of 


THE   LESSON   OF  THE   LEAVES.  153 

some  use,  tliat  our  life  really  does  add  sometliing  to  the 
welfare  of  the  world.  Only  by  a  life  really  devoted 
to  the  good  of  the  world  can  our  personal  welfare  be 
attained.  A  leaf  that  does  not  serve  the  tree,  as  leaves 
were  made  to  do,  the  tree  will  not  nourish,  the  rains 
will  not  refresh,  the  sun  will  wither  and  destroy.  If 
it  still  hangs  on  the  tree,  it  hangs  there  a  blot  on  its 
beauty,  and  fitly  represents  the  selfish  soul.  And  yet 
the  plan  of  life  adopted  by  thousands  is  formed  on  the 
selfish  principle.  Men  set  before  them  their  personal 
welfare  and  happiness  as  their  end  in  life.  What 
serves  them  they  value  for  that  reason,  and  what  does 
not  serve  them  they  do  not  regard.  They  do  not  con- 
sider how  they  may  live  to  serve  the  good  of  the  world, 
but  rather  how  they  may  get  the  most  of  the  world's 
good  for  themselves.  This  is  nothing  less  than  an 
attempt  to  subvert  the  whole  law  of  human  happiness, 
and  force  natural  laws  to  work  in  opposition  to  the  will 
of  God.  They  will  not  do  it.  The  selfish  man  must 
fail.  The  selfish  plan  is  false,  and  can  result  only  in 
misery,  guilt,  and  ruin.  If  you  have  now  come  where 
you  must  form  your  plan  for  life,  your  method  of 
spending  your  days  upon  the  earth,  you  should  be 
reminded  of  this.  God  has  made  your  real  welfare 
and  value  dependent  upon  that  spirit  and  life  by  which 
you  will  be  most  useful  to  others.  Every  employment 
and  profession  is  necessarily  a  serving  of  others.  Mer- 
chandise, Medicine,  Law  and  Mechanics,  Agriculture 
and  TJuling,  —  all  are  founded  on  the  principle  of  serv- 
ing others,  and  have  for  their  true  spirit  the  spirit  of 
benevolence,  not  of  selfishness.  As  the  leaf  feeds  itself 
most  perfectly  when  it  fulfils  its  greatest  obligation  in 


154  GOD  IN  NATURE   AND   LIFE. 

feeding  the  tree,  so  we  must  find  our  best  good  in  being 
useful  to  otliers.  Every  leaf  of  every  tree  proclaims  a 
principle  that  condemns  a  life  of  selfishness.  The  great 
secret  of  a  happy  life  lies  in  finding  that  life  in  which 
we  are  sources  of  pure  influence  to  all  around  us ;  and 
who  doubts  that  the  faithful  Christian  life  is  in  every 
way  the  best  ?  Governed  by  Christian  principle  and 
moved  by  a  Christlike  spirit,  life  becomes  beautiful, 
useful,  happy. 

The  leaf  dies  an  honorable  death.  It  has  served  a 
great  and  good  purpose  in  its  life,  and  its  monument  is 
the  strong  and  majestic  tree,  whose  branches  spread 
themselves  over  its  grave  like  priestly  hands  extended 
in  benediction.  It  has  left  beliind  an  increase  of  vital- 
ity and  strength  to  the  tree.  It  is  humiliating  that  we 
are  compared  to  the  leaf  for  our  frailty  and  mortality, 
but  it  is  more  humiliating  that  we  cannot  be  compared 
to  the  leaf  for  usefulness  of  life;  that  while  it  has 
served  well  and  truly  the  purpose  of  its  life,  we  have 
missed  ours,  and  die  leaving  behind  us  no  addition  to 
the  happiness  and  good  of  the  world.  The  color  of 
death  in  the  leaf  is  the  color  of  sunset,  all  red  and 
golden,  and  it  is  hard  to  tell  whether  the  tree  is  more 
beautiful  in  the  greenness  of  its  life  or  in  the  gold  and 
purple  of  its  dying  leaves.  How  different  with  some 
of  us !  A  selfish,  sinful  life  leads  to  a  death  uncolored 
with  pleasant  memories  and  glorified  hopes.  Only  the 
Christian  fades  as  the  leaf,  leaving  good  behind  to  all 
with  whom  he  has  lived,  and  dying  naturally,  gently, 
happily,  in  the  glorious  light  of  hope. 

Wliat  will  the  lives  that  we  are  living  leave  behind 
them  to  the  world  ?     When  they  are  past,  what  will  be 


THE   LESSON  OF   THE  LEAVES.  155 

tlieir  value  ?  We  must  judge  them  from  this  point  of 
view,  for  thus  will  tliey  be  judged  by  the  God  into 
whose  presence  we  fade  away  from  the  world.  Would 
to  God  we  did  fade  away  as  a  leaf  fades  after  it  has 
accomplislied  the  end  of  its  life,  and  faithfully  served 
the  purpose  of  God  in  giving  it  existence !  It  is  so 
sad  to  see  the  many  worthless  lives  of  men, —  worthless 
because  they  lack  that  union  with  God  which  gives 
them  value,  to  the  person  or  to  the  world.  And  I 
must  tell  you  that  your  life  is  worthless,  and  will  be 
a  failure,  if  you  are  living  without  God  in  the  world. 
When  it  is  past  and  gone,  and  you  fall  from  the  race 
in  death,  in  your  fading  there  will  be  no  hope ;  your 
iniquities,  like  the  wind,  shall  drive  you  away. 

Thus  like  leaves  the  generations  of  men  live  and 
grow  for  a  season,  and  like  leaves  they  fall  before  the 
power  of  death.  From  the  falling  leaf  we  must  learn 
the  lesson  of  our  weakness  and  insecurity,  and  see 
wherein  the  honor  and  happiness  of  our  short  life 
consist.  The  true  and  living  stock  and  substance  in 
the  race  of  men,  that  real  true  life  to  which  the  ages 
and  the  generations  add  a  growth  as  they  pass  away, 
is  the  kingdom  of  God,  tlie  church  of  Jesus  Christ. 
The  race  puts  forth  its  generations  like  leaves ;  and  as 
the  leaves  are  the  organs  through  which  an  added  size 
and  strength  are  given  to  the  tree,  so  from  tlie  passing 
generations  of  men  there  is  gatliered  an  increased 
growtli  and  power  to  the  kingdom  of  the  Eedeenier; 
and  while  "  we  all  do  fade  as  a  leaf,"  the  generations 
of  men  have  contributed  to  the  growth  of  that  divine 
race,  the  family  of  God  in  the  world.  This  thought  is 
expressed  by  the  prophet  Isaiah  when,  in  threatening 


156  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

the  judgment  of  God  upon  the  people,  which  should 
leave  the  laud  utterly  desolate,  the  cities  •  without  in- 
habitant, the  houses  without  a  man,  he  says,  "But  yet 
in  it  shall  be  a  tenth,  and  it  shall  return,  and  shall  be 
eaten  :  as  a  teil-tree,  and  as  an  oak  whose  substance  is 
in  them,  when  they  cast  their  leaves."  So  holy  seed 
shall  be  the  substance  of  the  human  race.  They  are 
that  part  of  it  which  remains  living  when  the  genera- 
tions fall  and  decay  like  leaves  from  an  oak.  For  the 
sake  of  this  substance,  this  holy  seed,  the  seasons  of 
tlie  world's  history  have  been  appointed.  For  the  sake 
of  this  holy  seed  the  generations  have  lived  and  died. 
Whole  generations  of  leaves  have  existed  to  add  one 
new  ring  to  the  trunk  of  this  tree;  whole  generations 
of  men  have  existed  to  add  one  new  circle  to  the  family 
of  God. 

For  the  growth  and  development  of  the  tree  the 
seasons  have  been  made  what  they  are.  Indeed,  the 
whole  meaning  of  the  season  is  this,  —  it  is  God's  con- 
trivance to  get  living,  growing,  fruitful  trees.  And  the 
whole  meaning  of  all  the  seasons  of  time  and  history  is 
this,  —  it  is  a  plan  of  God  to  get  a  holy  seed,  a  tree  of 
life,  a  royal  priesthood,  a  holy  nation,  a  peculiar  people. 
When  the  seasons  are  all  past,  when  the  generations 
have  all  lived  and  died,  and  the  true  substance  of  the 
liuman  race  remains,  as  the  substance  of  the  oak  when 
it  casts  its  leaves,  then  will  there  be  on  the  banks  of 
the  river  of  the  water  of  life,  in  the  new  heavens  and 
the  new  earth,  a  tree  of  life,  whose  leaf  shall  not  wither, 
and  whose  fruit  shall  be  yielded  every  month.  As  to 
our  physical  life,  we  belong  to  the  old  race,  the  Adamic 
tree,  and  "  we  all  do  fade  as  a  leaf ; "  and  the  question 


THE  LESSON  OF  THE  LEAVES.  157 

is,  whether  as  to  our  spiritual  life  we  belong  to  the  new 
race,  the  Christian  tree,  the  vine  of  Christ.  This  is  a 
living  tree,  a  true  tree  of  life,  whose  roots  strike  firm 
and  deep  into  the  being  of  God,  and  wliose  leaves  and 
branches  wax  and  grow  in  the  atmosphere  of  His  pres- 
ence. And  when  the  generation  to  which  we  belong 
shall  pass  away,  oh,  shall  we  be  of  that  part  of  it 
who  fade  as  a  leaf,  and  whose  iniquities  as  a  wind  shall 
drive  them  away,  or  of  that  part  which  has  been  added 
to  Christ  and  to  the  holy  seed  that  shall  remain,  as  the 
substance  of  a  tree  when  it  casts  its  leaves  ? 

There  is  another  analogy  between  the  leaf  and  human 
life.  Souls  of  men  are  trees  of  life.  The  crowth  of  a 
soul  is  a  work  of  time.  Like  the  tree,  it  reaches  its 
maturity  slowly,  and  by  passing  through  distinct  sea- 
sons or  periods ;  and  the  seasons  of  the  soul,  as  of  tlie 
tree,  have  their  own  several  sets  of  leaves.  In  childhood 
the  soul  puts  forth  its  childish  trust  and  questions.  All 
the  manifestations  of  the  soul  in  childhood,  in  thinkiue:, 
in  affection,  and  in  action,  are  the  young  and  tender 
leaves  of  the  soul.  We  watch  them  unfolding,  with 
ever  fresh  surprise.  It  is  the  constantly  repeated  mira- 
cle of  life,  —  these  first  leaves  of  the  soul  are  so  pure, 
so  beautiful,  the  activities  of  childhood  are  so  natural 
and  unrestrained,  so  truthful  and  happy.  But  these 
first  manifestations  of  the  soul's  life  and  character  "  do 
all  fade  as  a  leaf,"  and  in  their  season,  beyond  which 
they  cannot  pass,  the  soul  drops  them,  to  take  on  tlie 
different  thoughts  and  feelings  and  activities  of  its 
next  period.  "  When  I  was  a  child,"  says  the  Apostle, 
"  I  spake  as  a  child,  I  understood  as  a  child,  I  thought 
as  a  child:    but   when  I  became  a  man,  I  put   away 


158  GOD   IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

cliildish  things."  The  interests  and  feelings  of  child- 
hood do  all  fade  from  the  soul,  as  leaves  fade  from  the 
tree  ;  but  as  the  leaf  while  it  lived  added  to  the  growth 
and  strength  of  the  tree,  so  do  these  leaves  of  the  soul, 
put  forth  in  childhood,  bring  the  soul  forward,  develop 
its  powers,  increase  its  vitality  and  substance,  and 
make  it  capable  of  more  important  life  and  action.  In 
youth,  the  soul  puts  forth  other  thoughts,  affections, 
and  activities.  It  clothes  itself  in  ardent  sympathies 
and  enthusiastic  hopes,  as  the  young  tree  clothes  itself 
in  luxuriant  leaves.  New  principles  of  human  nature 
start  into  life  and  growth.  In  place  of  childlike 
trust  and  submission  there  spring  up  the  instincts 
of  sovereignty  and  liberty.  In  place  of  the  quiet 
affections  of  childhood,  the  soul  puts  forth  its  passion- 
ate and  selfish  desires.  Dreams  crowd  the  brain,  and 
longings  fill  the  heart.  But  these  manifestations  of  the 
soul,  like  those  that  went  before  them,  do  all  fade  as 
a  leaf  Childhood  and  youth  are  vanity,  in  the  same 
sense  that  leaves  are  vanity,  —  they  are  perishable  and 
temporary.  The  ardor  and  enthusiasm,  the  dreams,  the 
passions  and  the  hopes  of  youth  fade  as  a  leaf  The 
soul  casts  them  as  the  tree  casts  its  leaves.  The  de- 
licious awakening  of  the  soul's  youth  is  followed  by 
the  intense  midsummer  of  our  zeal  and  striving,  and 
this  by  the  sober  autumn  of  experience,  in  which  our 
overwrought  hopes  and  passions  fade  and  fall.  But  the 
luxuriant  leaves  of  youth  have  brought  the  soul  for- 
ward toward  its  earthly  maturity,  they  have  hardened 
its  substance  and  strengthened  its  powers,  they  liave 
served  its  need  of  education  and  discipline.  These 
leaves  of  the  soul  have  extracted  from  the  elements  of 


THE   LESSON   OF  THE   LEAVES.  159 

life  around  it  such  good  or  evil  as  the  soul  was  fitted 
to  take  in ;  and  these  in  their  season  must  give 
place  to  the  different  ideas  and  sentiments  and  inter- 
ests of  maturer  life.  And  how  different  they  are, — 
the  passions  of  manhood  !  how  much  more  command- 
ing and  intense,  although  less  boisterous !  Ambitions, 
tastes,  preferences,  objects  of  labor  and  hope,  all  are 
different,  — if  not  in  themselves,  still  they  are  different 
to  the  soul.  Behold  what  the  soul  puts  forth  in  matu- 
rity !  Its  interests,  affections,  hopes,  how  abiding  they 
appear !  It  seems  now  as  though  the  soul,  having 
come  beyond  the  delusive  dreams  of  youth,  had  entered 
upon  its  last  and  enduring  stage  ;  but  it  is  not  so. 
"When  old  age  comes,  the  interests  and  excitements  do 
all  fade  as  a  leaf  The  world  wears  out ;  its  possessions 
lose  their  value,  its  enterprises  their  attraction,  and 
from  the  weary  and  exhausted  soul  the  interests  of  life 
fade  and  fall  like  autumn  leaves,  leaving  the  soul  no 
power  to  put  forth  other  hopes  and  interests  to  take 
their  place.  But  while  the  leaves  fade,  tlie  tree  grows  : 
and  so  all  the  while,  through  all  the  earthly  life,  the 
various  interests  fade  and  are  being  left  behind  us,  but 
the  soul,  the  character,  is  growing.  Its  substance  re- 
mains when  it  casts  its  leaves,  and  the  aged  man  stands 
at  last  alive,  though  leafless.  His  aff'ections  have  faded 
because  their  objects  are  either  dead  or  changed ;  and 
his  hopes  are  in  the  past,  because  they  have  been 
harvested,  or  else  have  failed.  Alone  and  leafless  he 
stands,  yet  alive  and  strong,  waiting  for  the  coming  of 
the  next  world  as  a  new  season  in  which  he  shall  again 
put  forth  such  interests  and  experiences  as  his  condition 
in  that  world  shall  favor  and  develop.     Thus  the  soul 


160  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

is  a  tree  of  life,  growing  by  means  of  different  sets 
of  interests,  which  alternate  in  the  varying  seasons  of 
its  life,  and  all  fade  in  succession  like  the  leaves  of 
the  changing  years ;  while  through  all  these  changes  it 
gathers  that  permanent  character  with  which  it  will 
enter  the  new  season  which  death,  like  winter,  separates 
from  this. 

The  leaf,  while  it  lived,  has  gathered  from  the  ele- 
ments that  which  now  makes  the  substance  of  the  tree  ; 
and  we,  by  the  affections  we  have  cherished,  by  the  in- 
fluences we  have  allowed  to  affect  us,  by  the  ideas  we 
have  gathered,  by  the  quality  of  our  deeds,  have  formed 
the  character  which  these  have  nourished.  The  tree 
makes  itself,  by  the  use  of  the  elements  in  which  it 
lives.  We  have  made  ourselves  what  we  are,  by  what 
we  have  accepted,  and  taken  into  our  hearts  and  lives 
and  manners.  And,  oh,  what  are  we  ?  What  have 
we  taken  to  ourselves  from  all  the  elements  of  good 
and  evil  in  which  we  live  ?  We  must  take  our  lesson 
in  answer  to  this  question  from  the  leaf.  For  in  every 
case  the  leaf  has  gathered  from  the  natural  elements 
only  that  which  was  suited  to  the  character  of  the  tree. 
The  leaf  of  the  sweet  maple  has  grown  in  the  same 
breeze  with  the  poisonous  ivy-vine,  and  the  maple-leaf 
has  gathered  only  the  elements  of  a  maple  character, 
while  from  the  same  sources  the  ivy  has  gathered  only 
poison.  Character  is  stronger  than  all  outward  influ- 
ences, for  it  turns  their  action  to  the  strengthening 
of  itself.  By  all  the  affections  and  sentiments  and 
purposes  that  we  have  put  forth,  we  have  gathered 
either  good  or  evil  from  all  amid  which  we  have 
lived. 


THE  LESSON  OF  THE  LEAVES.  IGl 

The  soul  destitute  of  love  aud  faith  toward  God, 
living  unto  itself  and  for  the  world  alone,  from  all 
that  might  have  made  it  holy  and  happy  witli  God 
lias  gathered  only  evil.  The  manifestations  of  God 
in  the  world,  the  evidences  of  His  presence  and 
powder,  have  been  around  us  all  alike  ;  but  from  these 
things  the  soul  devoid  of  piety  has  gathered  only  the 
bitter  condemnation  that  "  when  they  knew  God  they 
glorified  Him  not  as  God,  neither  were  thankful,  but 
became  vain  in  their  imaginations,  and  worshipped 
and  served  the  creature  more  than  the  Creator."  We 
have  all  lived  beneath  the  sure  word  of  prophecy ; 
the  Sun  of  liighteousness  has  shone  upon  us ;  but 
from  all  the  truths  of  God  which  are  revealed  and 
have  been  taught  us,  the  unbelievijig  soul  has  gath- 
ered no  good,  but  only  greater  hardness  of  heart  and 
blindness  of  mind,  "We  have  been  often  warned ;  our 
own  souls  have  often  risen  up  in  denunciation  of  our 
lives ;  conscience  has  threatened  us,  and  the  Gospel 
has  invited  us  to  God ;  and  from  neglect  and  resist- 
ance toward  these  influences  how  many  have  gathered 
only  a  hardening  of  lieart  and  an  increase  of  guilt !  As 
from  the  sunshine  and  rain  the  oak  gathers  by  its  leaves 
only  greater  bitterness  because  its  heart  is  bitter,  so 
while  Sabbaths  and  their  sacred  hours  of  worship  and 
instruction  have  passed  regularly,  like  sun-days  upon 
our  lives,  even  as  they  are  called,  the  heedless  soul 
has  taken  to  itself  from  all  their  warmth  and  bright- 
ness only  a  new  growth  of  heedlessness  and  world- 
liness.  Oh,  it  is  the  evil  of  being  irreligious  and 
disobedient  toward  God,  that  such  a  state  of  heart 
converts  all  the  influences  of  the  universe  into  evil  for 

11 


162  GOD   IN   NATURE   AND   LIFE. 

US, — as  it  is  the  evil  of  a  poisonous  tree  that  by  all 
its  leaves  it  gathers  only  poison  from  all  Nature.  Are 
not  our  souls  becoming  more  and  more  sinful  ?  Is  it 
not  greater  guilt,  insensibility,  and  danger  that  the 
days  and  weeks  are  adding  to  us  ?  Are  we  not  grow- 
ing more  fixed  in  our  errors,  more  immovable  in  our 
impiety,  and  more  established  in  our  character  as  ne- 
glecters  of  Christ  ?  What  shall  the  end  of  these 
things  be  ?  What  are  we  likely  to  become  at  last, 
living  as  we  are  living  ?  So  long  as  our  hearts  are 
not  reconciled  to  God,  and  not  in  communion  with 
Him,  so  long,  by  all  we  do  or  say  or  feel  or  think,  we 
are  becoming  more  alienated  and  sinful.  We  put 
forth  our  plans  and  hopes,  our  feelings  and  ambitions, 
like  leaves,  only  to  gather  from  life  the  bitterness  of 
evil,  the  poison  of  sin. 

It  is  far  otherwise  with  the  soul  whose  great  prin- 
ciple is  faith  in  God.  Such  a  soul  is  like  a  good  tree, 
which  by  all  its  leaves  gathers  from  all  things  only 
good.  The  leaf  of  the  sweet  maple  is  hung  out  amid 
sunshine  and  storm,  rain  and  drought,  heat  and  cold, 
the  exhalations  of  the  earth  and  the  influences  of  the 
stars,  and  from  all  these  things  gathers  only  good,  only 
that  which  adds  to  its  richness  and  its  sweetness.  The 
soul  that  loves  God  supremely  may  have  to  spread  its 
leaves  in  the  air  of  an  unfriendly  condition,  its  hopes 
may  be  twisted  by  the  tempest,  its  affections  blasted  by 
affliction  or  drowned  in  the  storm  of  grief;  yet  that 
pure  principle  of  faith  and  love  to  God  will  convert  all 
these  into  food  for  its  own  virtue  and  sanctification.  To 
the  pious  soul  there  is  no  evil,  for  "  all  things  work  to- 
gether for  good  to  them  that  love  God."     Sorrow,  suf- 


THE   LESSON   OF   THE   LEAVES.  1G3 

fering,  sin,  temptation,  poverty,  riches,  sickness,  death, 
life,  evil,  —  all  these  give  their  own  addition  to  the 
soul's  strength  and  fitness  for  heaven. 

But  "we  all  do  fade  as  a  leaf."  The  time  comes 
when  all  earthly  interests  fade  away.  The  winter  of 
death  passes  over  us,  and  then  conies  the  long,  long 
season  of  eternity,  into  which  we  pass  with  the 
characters  to  which  we  have  grown  in  this  world. 
What  kind  of  leaves  will  the  soul  put  forth  in  that 
new  season  ?  There  God  himself  is  the  sun.  His 
presence  is  the  air.  What  kind  of  feelings  will  the 
presence  of  God  bring  forward  in  your  soul  and 
mine?  What  good  or  evil  will  our  souls  draw  from 
tlie  unveiling  of  His  face  ?  What  can  the  soul  of 
the  impenitent  man  feel  but  shame  for  its  depravity 
and  despair  for  its  ruin  ?  Then  will  the  fears  and 
sensibilities,  like  the  leaves  of  the  poisonous  tree, 
gather  only  greater  sorrow  and  shame  to  the  soul. 
A  tree  carries  its  own  character  through  the  winter, 
and  puts  forth  the  same  kind  of  leaves  in  the  new 
season  as  before ;  and  the  soul  carries  its  character 
through  the  winter  of  death,  and  puts  forth  the  same 
sentiments  of  opposition  to  good  and  holiness  as  in 
the  earthly  season  ;  and  from  all  the  elements  of  that 
world,  as  from  all  the  elements  of  this,  it  attracts  to 
its  own  life  only  the  evil,  the  bitter,  the  poison.  But 
the  Christian,  when  that  new  season  comes,  and  the 
leaves  of  his  earthly  life  are  left  in  the  grave,  will 
put  forth  new  leaves,  in  holy  affections  of  love  to 
God  and  dehght  in  Him,  through  which  he  will 
draw  to  himself  and  convert  into  his  own  substance 
all    the   light   and    life,   the    holiness    and     bliss,   of 


164  GOD  IN  NATURE  AKD  LIFE. 

heaven.  A  tree  planted  by  the  rivers  of  the  water 
of  life,  its  leaf  shall  not  wither,  its  life  shall  not 
fail.  The  dew  all  night  upon  its  branches,  the  sun- 
shine all  day  upon  its  leaves,  it  shall  flourish  in  the 
courts  of  our  God. 

Oh,  it  is  so  infinite  a  good  to  be  holy,  to  have  a 
new  and  holy  life  in  our  souls!  This  is  the  power 
that  converts  all  things  into  good  for  us,  and  makes 
all  our  thoughts  and  feelings  like  the  leaves  of  the 
good  tree,  —  organs  for  attracting  good  from  evil. 
Life  from  death,  and  endless  bliss  from  immortality. 
"Awake!  Arise  from  the  dead,  and  Christ  shall 
give  thee  life  1 "  Come  this  day  to  Him  in  prayer 
and  submission ;  be  joined  to  Him  and  to  His  people, 
and  your  life  shall  be  hid  in  Him,  and  safe  in  His. 
Remembering  our  frailty,  and  how  soon  we  may  fade 
as  a  leaf,  let  us  make  the  greater  haste  to  seek 
Him  while   He   may   be   found. 


THE  DAY.  165 


THE  DAY. 

Thou  makest  the  outgoings  of  the  Tnorning  and  evening  to 
rejoice.  —  Psalm  Ixv.  8. 

GOD  has  given  indeed  a  peculiar  beauty  and 
brightness  to  the  lights  of  evening  and  morning. 
We  never  feel  so  deeply  as  at  these  times  the  beauty 
of  the  world  which  He  has  made  our  home.  The  soft- 
ened lights,  the  longer  shadows,  heighten  all  the  colors 
of  Nature,  make  all  distances  vaster,  and  all  outlines 
less  sharp  and  distinct,  and  so  beget  a  sense  of  freedom 
in  which  we  feel  true  pleasure.     We  are  not  crowded, 

—  the  limits  of  life  extend  themselves,  and  we  are 
more  free.  The  outgoings  of  the  morning  —  the  light, 
the  beauty,  the  brightness,  the  opening  flowers,  the 
freshness  of  the  dew,  the  songs  of  birds,  the  motions 
of  the  leaves,  the  colors  of  the  clouds  and  of  the  earth 

—  do  indeed  seem  to  be  tokens  of  a  joy  in  Nature  it- 
self. It  is  not  merely  light  and  brightness ;  it  affects  us 
as  the  brightness  of  a  real  joy,  as  if  Nature  itself  were 
conscious  of  happiness  which  it  thus  expressed.  It  is 
not  men  alone  that  rejoice ;  the  outgoings  of  the  morn- 
ing and  evening  seem  themselves  to  be  full  of  gladness, 
and  our  joy  is  but  our  share  in  the  general  rejoicing. 
And  it  is  the  daily  life  and  care  of  God  in  the  world 
that  makes  the  joy.     He  is  the  sun  whose  beams  of 


166  GOD   IN  NATURE   AND  LIFE. 

blessing  enlighten  and  warm  our  hearts.  His  great, 
infinite  presence  behind  and  below  all  created  life 
comes  up  into  it  and  mingles,  unseen  and  often  un- 
recognized, with  the  life  of  Nature  and  the  experience 
of  our  souls.  If  God  were  gone  out  of  the  world,  no 
morning  would  go  out  rejoicing,  no  evening  come  down 
with  its  sacred  mantle  of  peace  and  promise  on  the 
earth.  All  life  would  depart  out  of  plant  and  beast 
and  bird  and  man.  The  only  sounds  the  earth  would 
hear  would  be  the  sounds  of  dissolution  and  decay, 
"  the  mountain  falling  and  coming  to  nought,  the  rock 
removing  from  its  place,  and  the  things  which  grow  out 
of  the  dust  of  the  earth  "  falling  with  the  mournful 
crash  of  death  to  dust  again.  Just  behind  what  we 
see  in  Nature,  just  behind  the  morning  and  evening 
lights,  just  behind  the  beauty  and  growth  and  decay 
of  the  earth,  just  behind  our  thinking  and  our  feeling, 
and  close  to  it  all,  there  is  God ;  there  He  lives  im- 
parting His  life  and  love  and  power,  to  keep  the  world 
alive  and  active,  and  full  of  light  and  good.  He  is 
the  ocean  out  of  which  all  waters  that  fall  upon  the 
land  and  rise  in  springs  and  flow  in  streams  proceed, 
and  to  Him  also  they  return,  the  ocean  of  life  out  of 
which  we  and  every  living  creature  have  come  forth, 
and  to  which  by  the  process  of  living  we  are  returning. 
Oh,  it  is  in  Him  that  the  worlds  float,  in  Him  that  we 
live  and  move  in  being.  The  joy  of  the  morning  and 
of  the  evening  is  the  joy  of  the  Lord,  the  overflow  in 
beauty  and  color  and  music  and  human  happiness  of 
His  great  loving  delight  in  His  works. 

We  cannot  forget,  indeed,  how  many  there  are  who 
take  no  share  in  morning  or  evening  happiness,  whose 


THE   DAY.  167 

mornings  wake  no  sense  of  joy  in  their  hearts,  and 
whose  evenings  close  like  new  walls  of  darkness  that 
bring  no  rest,  because  their  hearts  are  filled  with 
gloom  and  discontent.  But  to  the  child  of  God,  faitli- 
ful  to  his  duties,  believing  in  God's  love,  hoping  for 
heaven,  tlie  outgoings  of  the  morning  and  evening 
rejoice,  —  of  tlie  morning,  because  it  opens  with  new 
tokens  of  his  Father's  love;  of  the  evening,  if  for  no 
other  reason,  because  "  a  day's  march  nearer  home " 
is  done,  and  heaven  is,  by  so  much,  less  far  away. 
The  happiness  of  life  is  the  happiness  of  its  separate 
days.  To  make  a  happy  and  perfect  life,  we  must 
make  happy,  perfect  days.  We  doubtless  make  a 
great  mistake  in  caring  so  much  for  other  days,  past 
or  future,  and  so  little  for  this  day,  the  day  in  which 
we  are  living.  We  too  often  pray  and  care  for  our 
whole  life,  earnestly  intending  and  desiring  that  as  a 
whole  it  may  be  good  and  true,  but  overlook  each 
single  day,  as  if  our  whole  life  had  to  be  lived  at  once, 
and  not  by  days.  It  should  be  our  study  and  our  care 
to  make  each  separate  day  a  perfect  day;  we  should 
give  our  hearts  not  to  the  past  or  to  the  days  to  come, 
but  to  this  day.  Everything  in  the  universe  is  in  this 
day ;  here  and  now,  in  this  day,  is  our  chance  to  live 
and  be  blest.  And  I  have  selected  the  text,  because 
it  presents  us  with  the  picture  of  just  one  blessed, 
happy  day,  whose  morning  and  evening  both  rejoice. 

The  wisdom  and  virtue  necessary  to  live  such  a 
happy,  blessed  day  is  all  that  is  required  for  the  living 
of  a  wliole  life.  He  who  can  live  one  perfect  day  can 
live  all  days  so.  For  in  one  sense  the  whole  of  life 
is  in  each  day.     All  the  relations  of  life  surround  us. 


168  GOD  IN  NATURE   AND   LIFE. 

We  are  related  to  God,  to  eternity,  to  our  duty,  our 
dangers,  oar  temptations  and  trials,  the  same  in  each 
day  that  we  are  through  the  whole  of  life.  The  new 
days  bring  us  only  new  outward  circumstances ;  they 
do  not  change  the  great  moral  relations  or  duties.  All 
that  life  demands  of  us  is  demanded  every  day.  If 
we  would  make  life  more  profitable,  we  must  bestow 
more  care  and  earnestness  upon  the  separate  days, 
resolved  to  make  more  of  each.  We  must  begin  each 
day  more  as  if  we  were  beginning  a  new  and  better 
life,  and  finish  each  day  more  as  if  our  whole  life 
were  in  it. 

There  was  doubtless  a  profound  and  important 
reason  in  the  mind  of  God  for  that  decree  which  ap- 
pointed that  life  should  be  divided  continually  by  the 
nights  which  interrupt  our  living  and  lay  us  down  in 
the  semblance  of  death.  There  is  no  other  division  of 
time  so  strongly  marked  as  day  and  night,  no  two 
seasons  so  entirely  different  from  each  other.  One 
summer  does  indeed  seem  to  be  separated  from  another 
by  an  intervening  season  as  unlike  as  that  which  sepa- 
rates one  day  from  another ;  but  this  is  so  only  in  a 
part  of  the  world.  In  the  tropics,  the  most  populous 
portion  of  the  earth,  one  summer  is  separated  from 
another  by  hardly  any  difference ;  the  growth  and 
fruit-bearing  of  vegetation  is  not  arrested  at  all,  —  there 
is  no  winter.  But  all  over  the  world  day  and  night 
are  everywhere  established,  and  day  is  completely 
separated  from  day.  And  this  power  of  night  to  make 
each  day  separate  and  distinct  is  not  for  us  alone ;  the 
plants  of  the  vegetable  world  find  life  and  growth 
interrupted    by  night,  as  we  do.     Many   of  the   pro- 


THE  DAY.  169 

cesses  of  growtli  are  entirely  stopped  when  the  day- 
closes.  The  withdrawal  of  the  light  arrests  the  chemi- 
cal changes  in  leaf  and  flower  which  are  dependent 
upon  light,  and  though  there  is  in  one  sense  a  growth 
in  the  night,  it  is  not  a  perfect  growth,  and  many 
plants  do  not  grow  at  all.  The  flowers  close  their 
petals,  and  many  species  fold  their  leaves,  at  evening, 
as  if  they  clasped  their  hands  in  evening  prayer.  The 
morning  comes  to  them  all  as  a  new  beginning  of  life ; 
they  spring  forth  with  a  new  vigor,  and  all  the  opera- 
tions of  Nature  take  new  force.  Animals  also  find 
their  days  separated  by  the  intervening  nights :  each 
morning  is  like  being  born  again,  each  evening  like  a 
giving-up  of  life,  and  each  new  day  is  like  a  separate 
life  to  them. 

In  our  own  life  each  day  is  separated  from  its 
neighbor  by  what  we  leave  behind  us,  and  by  what 
we  receive  that  is  new.  So  many  of  our  moods  of 
feeling  are  washed  away  from  our  souls  in  sleep,  and 
we  wake  in  the  morning  in  a  new  life,  so  far  as  our 
feelings  are  concerned  I  How  many  thoughts  die  with 
the  closing  day  !  How  many  opinions  and  purposes  get 
lost  out  of  our  spirits  in  sleep  !  To  our  souls,  how  new 
is  each  day  that  dawns  upon  us ;  and  how  blessed  is 
the  night  and  sleep  that  takes  oft'  from  us  burdens  of 
thinking  and  feeling  which,  borne  too  long,  would 
absorb  us  wholly!  Many  circumstances,  indeed,  are 
the  same  in  each  succeeding  day,  but  we  ourselves 
are  never  quite  the  same  in  our  inward  life  and 
spirit.  Yet  there  is  also  very  considerable  change 
in  the  circumstances  of  each  new  day.  No  day  re- 
peats itself.     The  same  things  are  in  some  way  dif- 


170  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

fereut  to  us.  Each  day  is  set  solitary,  enclosed  by 
its  walls  of  night,  parted  off  from  every  other  by  the 
cessation  of  conscious  living  in  the  grave  of  sleep. 
No  day  is  permitted  to  run  into  another :  each  must 
have  its  own  specific  number  of  hours  and  minutes, 
and  no  two  adjacent  days  the  same.  Each  must  come 
forth  as  if  just  new-created,  bright  with  the  dew  of 
its  youth,  and  each  must  sink  to  death,  darken  to  its 
grave  as  to  its  final,  eternal  end.  For  the  evening  is 
the  true  death  of  the  individual  day.  There  is  no 
resurrection  for  that  day :  flowers,  birds,  beasts,  and 
men  will  wake  and  live  again,  but  the  day  is  dead 
for  ever ;  its  whole  existence  ends  with  the  setting 
sun. 

The  meaning  of  God  in  these  strongly-marked 
arrangements  ought  to  be  plain  to  us.  In  them  He 
says  to  us,  "  I  give  you  life,  not  in  years,  but  in 
days.  I  make  each  day  a  new  gift  of  life  to  you, 
that  you  may  live  your  whole  life  in  each  day ;  that 
you  may  not  waste  life  and  thought  and  feeling  on 
long  periods  of  the  future,  but  that  your  life  may  be 
bounded  by  limits  that  you  can  comprehend ;  that 
your  labors  and  duties  may  not  overtask  you,  but 
that  you  may  be  saved  from  the  weariness  and  ex- 
haustion that  would  oppress  you  if  your  life  were 
continuous,  unrelieved  by  the  pleasant  interruption 
of  evening  and  morning."  We  are  taught  to  look 
for  the  happiness  of  life  in  what  each  day  brings  us; 
to  consider  each  day  as  a  new  gift  of  God,  a  new 
chance  to  be  blessed  and  happy  ;  and  to  find  in  the 
duties  and  opportunities  of  each  day  the  happiness 
of  living.     A  year   is   an   important   period  of  time. 


THE  DAY.  171 

but  each  single  day  is  more  important  to  us.  "We 
should  care  for  the  welfare  of  the  year,  but  we  should 
care  more  for  the  dny.  The  day  —  its  history,  its 
duties,  its  opportunities  —  is  of  all  the  "times  and 
seasons "  on  earth  tlie  most  important  to  us.  And 
nothing  can  do  us  a  greater  good  than  something 
that  will  lead  us  to  set  a  higher  value  on  our  sepa- 
rate days,  and  bestow  a  higher  care  on  each  day's 
duties  and  opportunities,  and  thus  make  each  day 
more  complete.  We  do  so  despise  the  days !  We 
give  up  their  chances  of  doing  and  gaining  good,  as 
if  they  were  of  no  importance,  and  idly  dream  of 
some  coming  future  when  the  chances  will  l)e  larger, 
and  life  shall  have  more  importance  than  it  has  in 
these  insignificant  days.  God  makes  the  outgoings  of 
the  morning  and  evening  to  rejoice.  God  fills  the 
day  with  springs  of  joy  for  His  children ;  but  we 
miss  the  joy,  through  foolish,  sinful  looking-on  be- 
yond for  brighter  days  to  come.  Our  Lord  rebukes 
us  when  He  says,  "  Take  no  thought  for  the  morrow, 
for  the  morrow  shall  take  thought  for  the  things  of 
itself.  Sufficient  unto  the  day  is  the  evil  thereof." 
We  needlessly  increase  the  evil  of  the  day  by  neglect- 
ing its  opportunities  and  waiting  for  better  days  to 
come.  This  day,  for  example,  this  holy  day,  God 
has  given  to  us :  let  us  use  it,  —  we  shall  not  see  a 
better.  All  the  advantages  of  life  are  in  this  day; 
the  universal  good  is  opened  to  us  each ;  and  the 
question  of  the  hour  is  this,  —  how  to  receive  and  use 
the  day  that  God  has  given  us,  so  that  we  shall  have 
the  good  of  it ;  so  that  the  outgoings  of  the  morning 
shall  rejoice  with  the  joy  of  a  new  life,  and  of  the 


172  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

evening  with  the  joy  of  gathered  gains  and  a  sanc- 
tified rest. 

To  live  the  most  perfect  life  of  a  day,  it  is  plain 
that  the  day  must  be  begun  in  the  right  spirit  toward 
all  the  duties,  opportunities,  and  trials  that  we  may 
have  to  meet.  "  Out  of  the  heart  are  the  issues  of 
life,"  and  the  experience  of  the  day  is  determined 
far  more  by  the  spirit  and  purpose  with  which  we 
enter  upon  it  than  by  all  its  circumstances.  It  is 
vain  for  us  to  think  that  anything  can  possibly  do  good 
to  an  evil-disposed  soul.  The  day  may  shine  with 
perfect  brightness,  and  the  world  be  full  of  blessing; 
but  the  soul  which  an  evil  spirit  of  selfishness  and 
discontent  possesses  cannot  be  blessed  by  it.  It  is 
a  soil  which  the  sunshine  can  only  harden.  The 
question  comes  to  us  in  youth  with  such  thrilling 
interest,  standing  then  in  the  morning  of  life,  the 
long  day  before  us,  so  much  to  be  gained  or  lost,  so 
much  to  suffer  or  enjoy,  — "  What  shall  I  do  with 
my  life  ?  to  what  shall  I  give  myself  ?  what  lead 
shall  I  follow  through  the  world  ? "  This  is  the  very 
question  that  the  opening  day  brings  to  each  of 
us,  — "  What  shall  I  do  with  my  life  this  day  ?  what 
lead  shall  I  follow  ?  to  whom  or  to  what  shall  I  give 
myself  ? "  And  the  history  and  experience  of  the 
day  will  grow  directly  from  the  answer  we  give  to 
this  question.  God  stands  before  us,  making  the 
outgoings  of  the  morning  rejoice  around  us,  and  says 
by  a  thousand  voices,  "  Son,  give  me  thy  heart : 
take  up  the  cross,  and  follow  me."  The  world  also 
meets  us  with  its  pleasures,  its  covetous  enterprises, 
its  careless  examples,  and  says  to  the  soul,  "  Give  thy- 


THE  DAY.  173 

self  to  me ;  follow  my  leading."  How  many  hands 
are  reached  out  to  the  soul  to  take  the  guidance  of 
it!  And  the  will  must  choose  to  which  it  will  give 
itself. 

How  can  that  choice  be  right  or  safe  which  sets  God 
aside,  and  puts  the  world  or  our  own  will  above  Him  ? 
How  can  that  day  be  perfect  which  is  spent  without 
regard  to  Him  ?  The  only  way  in  which  we  can  enter 
safely  on  the  dangers  of  life  is  first  to  put  the  soul  in 
the  hands  of  God.  We  have  much  to  do  with  the 
world,  but  we  have  far  more  to  do  with  Him.  The 
world  is  very  important  to  us,  but  His  favor  is  of  far 
greater  importance.  His  favor  is  our  life.  We  must 
take  Him  into  our  life,  and  give  Him  His  true  place 
there,  or  our  life  will  be  wholly  wrong  and  false. 
That  day  which  is  lived  without  a  supreme  regard  to 
God  is  a  day  lived  in  sin,  and  its  whole  history  only 
increases  our  condemnation  and  danger.  This  is  the 
sad  fact  in  every  impenitent,  prayerless  life ;  the  days 
as  they  come  and  go  only  leave  on  the  soul  a  growing 
weight  of  sin;  they  treasure  up  wrath  against  that 
great  and  terrible  day  of  wrath,  when  the  long-endur- 
ing patience  of  God  shall  cease,  and  His  judgments,  so 
long  suspended,  shall  fall  upon  the  guilty.  We  must 
make  our  day  right  with  God,  or  it  will  be  right  with 
nothing  else.  If  we  would  live  in  the  manner  of  a 
true  man,  we  must  walk  erect,  with  our  face  toward 
the  sky,  and  not  always  toward  the  earth.  That  day 
is  rightly  begun  in  which  we  go  early  to  the  presence 
of  God,  and  fill  our  life  with  the  influences  of  His 
presence  in  prayer,  and  put  our  hands  in  His  hand,  to 
follow  His  guidance  through  the  day.     This  grateful, 


174  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

submissive  recognition  of  God  is  the  spirit  that  puts 
us  right  with  all  the  work,  the  blessings,  and  the  trials 
of  the  day.  We  may  indeed  say  our  prayers  and  be 
little  the  better  for  it;  but  we  cannot  really  and 
earnestly  seek  God  and  commune  with  Him  in  the 
morning  without  being  better  prepared  for  all  that  we 
must  meet.  There  is  no  safety  for  the  soul  that  does 
not  thus  put  itself  by  morning  prayer  into  the  hands 
of  God.  The  temptations  of  the  day  find  it  an  easy 
prey,  and  the  trials  of  the  day  are  unsupported  by  any 
sense  of  God's  favor  and  care.  As  the  day  opens  before 
us,  let  us  enter  into  our  closet,  and  when  we  have  shut 
the  door,  let  us  pray  to  our  Father  who  seeth  in  secret ; 
and  He  shall  reward  us  openly  with  His  presence  and 
favor  in  all  our  work. 

But  if  we  would  live  the  full  life  of  a  day,  we  must 
not  only  take  God  into  our  life  and  walk  with  Him, 
we  must  also  take  up  and  prosecute  all  our  best  pur- 
poses. The  poverty  and  emptiness  of  many  of  our 
days  is  owing  to  the  want  of  any  great  good  purpose 
in  them.  We  are  living  for  nothing  great  and  good; 
how  should  life  be  great  and  good  to  us  ?  We  must 
live  for  something  worth  living  for,  if  we  would  make 
our  life  worth  living  at  all;  and  a  day  must  have  some 
true  purposes  to  redeem  it  from  emptiness  and  con- 
tempt. We  cherish  noble  purposes,  it  may  be,  for  our 
whole  life,  but  we  do  not  bring  these  purposes  into 
each  day,  to  prosecute  them  earnestly  in  the  present ; 
and  so  life  passes  away,  and  its  end  comes,  and  we  are 
still  far  from  what  we  meant  and  hoped  to  be.  Let 
us  look  on  each  day  as  time  given  us  in  which  to  ac- 
complish something  for  all  the  purposes  of  life.     You 


THE  DAY".  175 

intend  to  know  something  of  all  the  truth  that  men 
have  discovered ;  bring  this  purpose  into  each  day,  add 
something  each  day  to  your  knowledge.  Carry  this 
jjurpose  with  you,  for  each  day  brings  its  opportunities, 
which  must  be  lost  if  your  purpose  is  not  ready  for 
them.  You  intend  to  make  the  most  of  yourself,  to 
gain  the  highest  position  of  which  you  are  capable ; 
but  you  must  make  the  most  of  this  day,  and  of  every 
day,  or  you  will  surely  fail.  Each  day  must  be  made 
a  stepping-stone  by  which  to  rise.  We  must  make 
each  step  of  life  a  step  toward  our  end,  if  we  are  to 
reach  it.  You  intend  to  do  good;  it  is  your  purpose 
to  help  your  fellow-men.  It  is  the  whole  value  of 
what  God  has  given  you  that  your  gifts  can  make 
others  happier  and  better.  You  hope  and  mean  to  live 
a  useful  life.  But  this  must  be  the  purpose  of  to-day, 
and  acted  on  to-day  as  you  have  opportunity,  or  your 
purpose  is  a  self-deception.  Your  desire  for  such  a  life 
may  be  sincere,  but  your  purpose  is  not,  if  it  is  not 
to-day's  purpose.  To-day  is  filled  with  the  opportuni- 
ties of  usefulness,  and  you  cannot  want  for  work  if  you 
are  willing  to  do  such  work  as  God  gives  you.  Those 
whom  you  can  benefit  by  your  love  or  by  your  labor 
are  always  with  you,  and  whensoever  you  will  you  may 
do  them  good.  We  ought  not  to  feel  that  our  useful- 
ness must  be  postponed  to  other  days.  The  question  of 
each  morning  to  every  child  of  God  is,  "What  can  I  do 
for  the  happiness  or  benefit  of  others  to-day  ? "  And  if 
we  would  make  our  day  happy  and  profitable  to  our- 
selves we  must  take  this  purpose  fully  into  it,  and  live 
for  it.  You  intend,  it  may  be,  to  be  a  Christian,  —  to 
change  your  way  of  living,  and  seek  a  place  among  the 


176  GOD   IN  NATURE   AND  LIFE. 

followers  of  Christ ;  but  it  is  not  your  purpose  for  to- 
day. How  blessed  for  you  would  this  day  be  if  it 
were  the  purpose  of  this  day !  because  now  is  the 
accepted  time ;  behold,  now  is  the  day  of  salvation ! 
If  this  were  your  purpose  to-day,  nothing  need  hinder 
its  accomplishment.  To-day  God  is  granting  pardons, 
receiving  sinners,  adopting  men  and  women  to  be  His 
sons  and  daughters.  You  could  be  forgiven  among 
them  if  you  would  but  come  in  penitence  and  prayer 
to  Him.  Every  great  purpose  of  life  has  just  as  much 
reference  to  one  day  as  to  another,  and  we  ought  to 
take  up  all  our  purposes  each  morning  to  live  lor  them. 
Thus  the  day  would  be  rich  in  importance,  filled  with 
interest,  and  close  at  evening  with  the  satisfaction  of 
feeling  that  we  have  not  fallen  behind  in  the  march  of 
life,  but  have  kept  pace  with  time,  and  are  ready  for 
the  evening  and  for  rest. 

If  we  would  make  our  day  complete,  its  morning 
and  evening  free  and  happy,  we  must  finish  the  work 
of  the  day  while  the  day  lasts,  and  leave  nothing  to 
follow  us  into  the  next.  For  thus  it  is  that  we  become 
over-burdened,  hurried,  and  oppressed,  and  all  unable 
to  enjoy  the  blessings,  however  many  they  are,  of  our 
condition  in  the  world.  It  is  a  great  sin  against  our 
own  welfare  thus  to  neglect  this  day's  work,  and  load 
other  days  with  burdens  which  God  never  meant  that 
the}''  should  have  to  bear.  And  there  is  so  much  im- 
portant work  that  can  never  be  done,  because  it  is  not 
done  in  its  time.  In  so  many  lives,  neglected  work 
would  be  found  to  be  the  one  great  source  of  wretched- 
ness. The  longer  we  live,  the  more  plainly  we  see  that 
right  work  well  done  is  the  true  source  of  real  peace, 


THE  DAY.  177 

and  faithfulness  is  the  crown  of  all  virtues.  "What- 
soever thy  hand  fiudeth  to  do,  do  it  with  thy  might." 
Jesus  said,  "  I  must  work  the  works  of  Him  that  sent 
me,  while  it  is  day ;  the  night  cometh,  when  no  man 
can  work."  And  what  is  for  us  the  work  of  this  holy 
day  ?  Have  we  repenting  and  returning  to  God  to  do  ? 
These  moments  are  given  us  for  this  purpose.  Have 
we  sins  to  part  from,  changes  of  life  to  make  ?  Oh, 
let  us  not  put  this  work  on  other  days,  which  will  be 
needed  for  their  own  duties.  Have  we  some  service  to 
God  and  His  cause  to  render,  some  witness  to  bear, 
some  truth  to  teach  ?  Let  us  accept  our  work,  and  do 
it  heartily  unto  the  Lord,  and  the  outgoings  of  the 
evening  will  rejoice  in  our  hearts  with  the  sweet  sense 
of  duty  done  and  accepted  with  God. 

A  day  is  a  life,  and  the  record  of  each  day,  of  tlys 
and  every  other,  is  preserved  in  the  book  of  God.  And 
life  is  a  day ;  and  the  evening  cometh,  and  also  the 
morning.  If  the  evening  of  life  is  to  rejoice,  the  day 
must  be  spent  in  the  faithful  service  of  God.  To  the 
faithful  Christian  the  end  of  life  comes  as  a  joyful 
release  from  toil  and  sorrow,  in  God's  everlasting  rest ; 
and  the  morning  of  the  next  life  opens  with  brightness 
and  beauty  such  as  never  shone  on  earth,  and  with 
sonss  such  as  this  world  never  heard. 


12 


LECTURES    AND    MISCELLANEOUS 
PAPERS. 


SOURCES   OF  SPIEITUAL  CONVICTION. 

I  HAVE  selected  this  theme  because  it  has  seemed  to 
me  to  be  a  peculiarity  of  the  times  that  men  seek 
satisfaction  and  conviction,  in  regard  to  spiritual  truth, 
by  a  mistaken  reliance  upon  secondary  and  inadequate 
sources  of  conviction.  There  has  never  been  a  time 
when  the  essence  of  Christian  truth  was  so  profoundly 
questioned  and  studied  as  now,  or  when  the  questions 
of  life  and  destiny  were  so  originally  treated,  apart  from 
all  systems  and  creeds  and  histories.  What  is  true  ?  and 
What  is  real  ?  are  far  more  solemn  and  weighty  ques- 
tions than  the  old  questions,  formerly  in  dispute.  There 
is  a  stronger  resistance  than  ever  before  to  external 
pressure,  whether  of  evidence  or  of  authority.  The 
soul  of  man  demands  to  be  satisfied,  and  by  something 
more  real  and  vital  than  a  consistent  system.  It  de- 
mands realities ;  and  when  we  look  forth  to  distinguish 
the  illusory  from  the  real  and  abiding,  then  the  truest 
realities  are  spiritual  facts  and  laws,  and  not  material 
and  sensible  forms  and  organizations.  God  is  a  greater 
reality  than  all  the  material  worlds  He  has  created. 
His  existence  is  a  firmer  fact  than  any  other  in  the 
universe.  The  soul  of  man  is  a  truer  reality  than  his 
material  form,  and  his  radical  character  is  a  more  radical 
reality  than  all  his  separate  acts.     Eeality  truly  belongs 


182  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

to  the  final  causes  and  ultimate  sources  of  what  we  see, 
and  illusion  and  decay  cling  to  the  issues  from  those 
sources.  The  visible  and  the  material  is  ever  the 
perishable ;  the  spiritual  fact  and  law  is  alone  the  eter- 
nal. In  us,  and  in  the  world  around  us,  "  the  leaf 
withereth,  and  the  flower  falleth,"  but  the  life  endures. 
And  life  is  more  than  all  living,  power  is  more  than  all 
its  products.  We  have  temporarily  to  do  with  material 
facts,  ever  changing  around  us ;  but  we  have  eternally 
to  do  with  spiritual  facts  and  laws,  changeless  as  the 
nature  of  God. 

The  knowledge  of  the  material  facts  of  the  universe 
may  be  learning  and  science,  but  the  knowledge  of 
these  spiritual  facts  and  laws  alone  is  truth.  For  truth 
comprehends  the  moral  meaning  and  the  final  value  of 
any  fact ;  and  these  can  never  be  reached,  except  by  the 
knowledge  of  those  spiritual  and  divine  relations  which 
connect  every  fact  with  the  thought  and  intention  of 
the  Author  of  all.  And  as  the  great  realities  of  the 
world  around  us  are  these  spiritual  facts  and  laws,  so 
the  conviction  and  experience  of  them  is  the  true  edu- 
cation, and  the  greatest  good  of  the  soul  within  us. 
One  of  the  mighty  problems  of  human  existence  may  be 
stated  thus.  Given,  a  world  of  spiritual  facts  and  laws, 
placed  beyond  the  senses  of  man,  and  given,  a  soul  at 
zero  :  required,  to  transfer  those  spiritual  facts  and  laws 
into  the  knowledge  and  experience  and  happiness  of 
that  soul.  To  bring  the  soul  into  contact  with  these 
spiritual  facts  and  under  these  spiritual  laws,  to  make 
what  is  true  in  the  universe  truth  and  experience  in  the 
soul,  —  this  is  the  one  great  purpose,  which  explains  why 
man's  soul  was  created  as  it  was,  and  why  it  was  put  in 


SOURCES  OF  SPIRITUAL  CONVICTION.  183 

the  relations  it  occupies,  and  why  the  divers  manners  of 
revelation  have  been  employed. 

It  was  once  to  be  decided  how  near  to  man's  soul,  and 
how  far  from  it,  these  truths  sliould  be  placed ;  how 
much  they  should  be  revealed,  and  how  much  they 
should  be  concealed  ;  what  faculties  for  recognizing, 
seizing,  and  feeling  these  realities  should  be  given  to  our 
spirits ;  by  what  means  and  in  what  manner  we  should 
arrive  at  a  knowledge  of  them  and  reach  a  firm,  con- 
trolling faith  in  them.  But  this  has  long  since  been 
decided.  Man's  soul  has  been  created  with  such  fac- 
ulties and  facilities  for  knowing  and  feeling  the  un- 
seen  and  the  spiritual  as  seemed  best  to  Infinite 
Wisdom,  and  the  spiritual  world  has  been  as  far  re- 
vealed as  to  the  same  Wisdom  seemed  necessary  and 
profitable.  Man,  with  all  his  hunger  and  thirst  for 
satisfactory  assurance  of  these  spiritual  realities,  has 
now  to  be  subject  to  the  conditions  which  have  tlms 
been  established.  They  cannot  be  known,  otherwise 
than  as  they  are  revealed,  and  they  cannot  become 
known  to  us,  otherwise  than  by  the  right  condition 
and  use  of  the  faculties  that  were  given  us  for  this 
purpose.  In  so  far  as  the  revelation  of  spiritual  facts 
corresponds  and  answers  to  the  soul,  in  so  far  is 
there  a  possibility  of  their  becoming  known  to  the 
soul.  Tlie  soul  has  its  own  divinely  fixed  laws  of  con- 
viction and  belief,  and  the  outward  revelation  must 
conform  to  those  laws,  or  the  soul  has  no  power,  and  no 
means,  of  apprehending  it.  To  the  soul  must  be  given 
real  endowment  of  capacity  for  tlie  apprehension  of 
spiritual  facts,  or  it  is  vain  to  reveal  tliem  in  any  man- 
ner.    Light  shines  in  vain  to  those  who  have  no  sense 


184  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

of  siglit.  Whether  the  mighty  facts  of  the  spiritual 
world  can  ever  be  known  and  experienced  in  the  soul 
of  man  depends  therefore  just  as  much  upon  the  soul 
itself,  and  what  it  is,  as  upon  the  revelation  of  these 
facts  from  without.  The  electric  shock  and  spark  of 
revelation  springs  only  when  the  circuit  of  the  infinite 
and  tlie  finite  is  completed  by  the  contact  of  God  with 
the  soul.  A  spiritual  conception  in  this  world  is  a 
child  whose  father  is  God,  and  whose  mother  is  the  soul. 
By  what  gifts  and  endowments,  then,  is  the  soul  fitted 
and  qualified  to  apprehend  the  spiritual  facts  which 
have  been  revealed  ?  By  what  means  is  it  possible 
to  apprehend  and  experience  them,  so  as  to  make 
them  real  elements  of  life,  and  on  what  grounds 
can  we  justly  appeal  to  the  faith  of  men  in  them  ? 

The  most  obvious  means  of  knowledge  with  which 
we  have  been  endowed  are  the  senses.  By  these  the 
material  universe  is  given  to  us.  The  resemblances 
and  differences  among  the  material  facts  that  we 
observe  force  us  to  distinguish  them  into  classes,  and 
the  observation  and  classification  of  them  according 
to  these  differences  constitute  science ;  and  science 
is  founded  in  the  senses.  Nothing  that  does  not  be- 
long to  matter,  and  cannot  be  observed  by  the  senses, 
is  any  real  part  of  science.  Those  faculties  of  man 
which  are  employed  in  the  observation  of  natural 
facts  are  not  the  faculties  by  which  anything  beyond 
those  facts  is  discovered.  Other  operations  of  the 
mind,  taking  the  ascertained  facts  of  science,  deduce 
from  them  general  laws  and  intellectual  truths,  differ- 
ing in  kind  from  those  of  science.  No  spiritual  fact 
is  discovered  or  ascertained  by  science.     Some  faculty 


SOURCES  OF  SPIRITUAL  CONVICTION.  185 

liiglier  than  the  faculties  that  are  required  in  scientific 
pursuits  must  be  possessed  by  men,  in  order  to  discover 
in  things  that  are  made  the  invisible  power  and  God- 
head of  the  Creator.  The  power  to  know  Nature  is 
not  the  power  to  know  God.  Tlie  spiritual  facts  of 
the  universe  do  not  come  within  the  province  of 
science,  and  are  not  subject  to  the  methods  by  which 
the  material  facts  of  Nature  are  ascertained.  And  if 
we  observe  that  the  scientific  spirit  is  silent  in  regard 
to  those  spiritual  facts,  that  it  resolutely  and  singly 
pursues  the  material  phenomena,  never  rising  into 
the  region  of  spiritual  meanings  and  realities,  we 
should  not  complain,  for  it  is  true  to  itself  in  hold- 
ing strictly  to  its  own  department.  True  science  is 
wise  enough  to  know  that  those  spiritual  realities 
must  not  be  degraded  by  subjection  to  its  methods 
and  tests.  Nature  is  that  which  is  bound  in  adaman- 
tine chains  of  law,  and  therefore  may  be  subjected  to 
the  Protean  tortures  of  experiment.  Spirit  is  that  which 
is  free,  and  eludes  all  physical  confinement,  and  resents 
all  subjection  to  physical  law.  It  is  known  by  other 
senses,  it  is  proved  by  other  methods. 

Whatever  has  been  ascertained  by  science,  and  how- 
ever vastly  the  bounds  of  human  knowledge  have  been 
extended  by  physical  research,  no  spiritual  fact  —  no 
God,  no  soul,  no  moral  government,  no  spiritual  influ- 
ence —  has  ever  been  or  can  ever  be  discovered  by 
scientific  studies.  And  whoever  he  is  that  thinks  he 
has  found  God  by  means  of  the  intellectual  observa- 
tion of  Nature,  he  is  deceived.  He  knew  God  before, 
and  by  other  means,  and  has  simply  found  in  science 
no    reason  why   he    should    not    trust    that   previous 


186  GOD   IN  NATURE   AND   LIFE. 

knowledge.  I  would  demand  of  the  man  of  science 
that  he  should  recognize  and  believe  the  facts  of  God 
and  his  own  direct  relation  to  Him,  not  because  he  is 
a  man  of  science,  but  because  he  is  far  more  than  that, 
—  because  he  is  a  man.  This  is  not  to  assert  that  God 
is  not  in  Nature,  and  cannot  be  seen  in  material  phe- 
nomena. It  is  not  to  assert  that  the  physical  universe 
does  not  declare  and  manifest  God.  It  is  only  to  as- 
sert that  it  is  not  the  material  intellect,  the  bare  logi- 
cal processes  of  the  mind,  that  discover  Him  in  Nature, 
and  that  it  is  not  by  the  scientific  method  that  His 
existence  and  providence  are  proved.  The  soul  rec- 
ognizes God,  not  as  logically  proved,  but  as  vitally 
necessary  :  not  from  an  intellectual  observation  of  the 
universe,  but  from  the  spiritual  consciousness  of  its 
own  finite,  dependent  moral  and  responsible  nature. 
Grand  as  is  the  greatness  of  Nature,  sublime  as  are 
the  harmonies  that  go  singing  on  its  eternal  rounds, 
it  is  not  to  the  analytic  intellect,  but  to  the  conscious 
and  worshipping  heart  or  soul,  that  they  declare  God, 
and  reveal  the  spiritual  facts  of  the  universe  which 
answer  to  the  spiritual  facts  in  the  soul's  experience. 
Scientific  methods  and  mathematical  demonstrations 
can  have  no  relation  to  spiritual  facts,  such  as  the 
existence  and  agency  of  God ;  and  whoever  attempts 
to  demonstrate  these  facts  by  such  methods  will  only 
degrade  them,  while  he  fails  to  produce  conviction 
even  in  himself.  The  value,  therefore,  of  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  material  universe  to  the  knowledge  of 
the  spiritual  facts  of  the  universe  is  only  incidental. 
It  can  only  intimate  to  the  higher  capacities  of  the 
soul  that  there  is  perhaps  a  world  of  spiritual  facts 


SOURCES  OF   SPIRITUAL  CONVICTION.  187 

lying  beyond  its  reach,  and  unattainable  by  its  metli- 
ods.  It  is  not  when  the  spirit  of  man  is  looking 
upon  Nature  through  tlie  microscopic  or  telescopic 
eyes  of  the  intellect,  that  God  and  other  spiritual 
facts  are  seen ;  it  is  when  these  have  reached  their 
limit,  and  the  spirit  looks  farther  on,  through  its  own 
self-conscious  life  and  conscience.  It  is  when  the  soul 
takes  up  Nature  as  related  to  its  own  affections,  to  its 
own  experience  of  spiritual  law,  that  Nature  seems 
filled  with  spiritual  facts  and  significance.  The  de- 
ductions of  science  cannot  be  truly  opposed  to  spirit- 
ual truths,  because  the  two  do  not  exist  on  the  same 
plane,  are  independent  of  each  other,  are  reached  by 
different  methods,  and  are  authorized  by  different 
powers  in  the  spirit  of  man. 

But  though  the  spiritual  facts  of  the  universe  are 
received  through  revelations  independent  of  the  obser- 
vation of  Nature,  and  are  proved  to  us  by  methods 
independent  of  scientific  rules,  there  is  yet  a  value 
in  all  the  truths  that  science  gathers. 

The  soul  will  always  be  embarrassed  in  giving  its 
practical  faith  to  any  spiritual  truth,  unless  it  has 
the  full  consent  of  tlie  intellect.  The  soul  can  indeed 
hold  intellectual  doubts  in  abeyance,  and  trust  to  the 
convictions  of  its  own  conscience  and  the  authority 
of  revelation  ;  but  it  would  always  prefer  to  have  the 
full  consent  of  the  intellectual  reason.  And  that  full 
consent  cannot  really  be  given,  until  the  mind  has 
run  through  Nature,  and  found  that  Nature  contains 
no  real  reason  why  the  soul  should  not  believe  in  a 
personal  God,  in  accordance  with  the  tendencies  of 
its  own  moral  nature  and  the  teachincrs  of  revelation 


188  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

as  it  speaks  to  that  nature.  And  science  has  so  far 
exhausted  Nature  of  its  facts  and  laws,  that  if  Nature 
contained  anything  to  forbid  the  soul  its  acts  of  faith, 
it  would  have  been  found  before  this.  What  though 
the  microscope  should  reveal  new  forms  of  existence 
in  myriads  ?  We  know  they  would  all  be  rooted  in 
the  same  principles  of  life,  nutrition,  propagation,  and 
activity  with  which  we  are  already  familiar.  What 
though  the  telescope  should  reveal  new  planets  and 
new  stars  ?  It  would  only  be  to  add  a  few  more  figures 
to  the  magic  dance ;  they  must  keep  step  to  the 
music  of  the  spheres,  and  their  coming  would  change 
nothing.  The  sublime  triumph  of  science  is,  that  it 
has  found  the  governing  laws  of  Nature,  according  to 
which  all  its  facts  occur  and  must  occur.  It  has 
found  the  key-tone  of  the  mighty  harmony,  and  new 
discoveries  can  only  add  notes  to  the  harmony,  but 
cannot  change  the  theme. 

Science  plunges  into  the  intricate  path  of  chemical 
analysis,  works  its  way  between  atomic  combinations, 
and  arrives  at  last  on  the  shore  of  the  infinite  ocean  of 
Force  and  Life.  But  to  science  and  the  scientific  spirit 
it  is  only  an  ocean,  of  weltering,  disembodied,  imper- 
sonal life  and  force.  No  great  counterpart  of  man's 
personality  meets  him  from  this  outlook.  Science 
turns  back  thence  to  Christianity,  and  says,  "  I  have 
passed  through  Nature  by  this  path.  I  found  law  and 
power  everywhere,  and  everywhere  invariable,  but  I 
was  unable  to  trace  them  to  their  source.  I  only 
found  that  that  source  was  something  entirely  beyond 
my  reach,  something  not  material,  something  that  none 
of  my  methods  could  detect.     I  stood  at  last  outside 


SOURCES  OF   SPIRITUAL  CONVICTION.  189 

the  organized  universe,  and  felt  myself  in  an  awful 
Presence,  which  appealed  not  to  my  reason  but  to  my 
heart.  What  was  tliat  awful  Presence  ? "  Christianity 
answers,  "  Let  your  soul  reply ; "  and  the  soul  replies, 
"  God !  "  Thus  whatever  path  science  takes,  whether 
outward  through  the  stars,  or  backward  through  past 
ages,  or  inward  through  the  phenomena  of  life  and 
death,  it  comes  out  at  last  upon  the  shore  of  the  same 
ocean  of  infinite  Power,  Intelligence,  and  Life,  and 
comes  to  see  that  the  world  is  but  an  island  lying  in 
that  ocean,  that  all  its  streams  run  into  it,  all  its  clouds 
and  rains  rise  out  of  it,  and  all  its  foundations  are  laid 
in  its  deeps.  And  thus,  having  found  in  Nature  itself 
no  cause  for  its  own  existence,  having  found  indeed 
that  the  spiritual  realities  upon  which  it  sees  all  things 
depending  are  over  and  above  Nature,  it  cheerfully 
gives  consent  to  that  faith  of  the  soul  which  answers 
with  love  and  trust  to  the  voice  that  speaks  to  it  out 
of  that  Infinite,  saying,  "  I  am  thy  God."  For  science 
is  then  compelled  to  see  that  it  is  God,  or  nothing. 

One  great  result  and  value  of  science  has  been  the 
testimony  it  has  borne,  the  conviction  it  has  added  to 
the  unity  of  Nature,  throughout  the  universe.  The 
recognition  of  this  reality  is  a  great  spiritual  advan- 
tage. Science  has  shown  that  the  universe  is  one, 
and  tlms  has  satisfied  that  instinct  of  our  souls  which, 
conscious  of  the  unity  of  our  own  existence,  seeks  a 
similar  unity  in  all  outward  phenomena.  We  know 
that  the  universe  can  be  a  harmony  only  because  it 
is  a  unity ;  and  because  it  is  a  unity,  it  must  be  a 
harmony.  The  conviction  of  this  unity  is  the  ground 
of  all  confidence.    When  science  has  so  far  explored  the 


190  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

worlds  as  to  be  able  to  bring  back  the  report  that  a 
real  unity  underlies  all  diversities,  the  soul  is  at  once 
put  in  possession  of  the  universe,  and  feels  able  to 
manage  its  property,  however  vast  the  estate,  because 
it  is  one  thing,  the  revenues  of  which  it  holds  in  its 
hands.  The  knowledge  of  those  great  principles  which 
bind  all  things  in  their  unity  enables  the  mind  to  be- 
hold any  one  thing  in  the  explaining  light  of  its  infi- 
nite relations.  The  viewing  of  any  one  fact  in  that 
light  invests  the  fact  that  is  so  regarded  with  an  al- 
most infinite  and  divine  significance.  Every  fact  is 
so  much  more  instructive  and  impressive  when  re- 
garded not  alone  but  in  its  setting,  —  and  every  fact  is 
a  gem  of  which  the  universe,  material  and  spiritual, 
is  the  setting.  In  every  true  picture,  the  line  that 
divides  the  simply  pretty  from  the  sublimely  beautiful 
is  the  horizon  line.  Whatever  lies  below  that  line  is 
seen  only  in  its  narrow  and  finite  surroundings ;  it  is 
isolated,  it  is  beautiful  only  for  the  moment,  and  the 
eye  can  rest  with  pleasure  upon  it  but  a  little  while. 
Whatever  rises  above  that  line  is  seen  in  the  infinite 
background  of  the  limitless  sky,  and  is  invested  with 
the  sublime  and  solemn  beauty  of  the  great  whole. 
It  is  when  we  hold  up  any  truth  in  its  connection 
with  universal  truth  that  we  see  its  greatness  most 
clearly  and  feel  its  power  most  deeply,  for  then  it  is 
pressed  home  upon  us  not  by  its  own  force  and  weight 
alone,  but  by  the  whole  force  of  the  mighty  and  har- 
monious whole  with  which  it  is  identified.  Notliing 
adds  such  confirmation  to  any  truth  as  to  find  its  place 
in  the  unity  of  the  universe.  A  man  must  always 
carry  liis  faith  in  his  hand,  and  hold  it  by  a  voluntary 


SOURCES  OF  SPIRITUAL  CONVICTION.  191 

power  and  be  cumbered  with  it,  until  he  can  find  a 
place  for  it  in  the  harmony  of  Nature  where  he  can 
lay  it  down,  and  where  the  universe  will  hold  it  for 
him.  That  which  is  arbitrary,  the  mind  always  finds 
exceeding  difficulty  in  believing.  It  is  so  in  these 
days  more  than  ever,  because  now  the  conviction  of 
unity  has  spread  so  widely  and  is  so  deeply  fixed  in 
the  faith  of  men.  Whatever  violates  that  unity  seems 
to  be  rejected  by  the  very  harmony  of  Nature,  as  would 
an  attempt  to  force  a  new  law  upon  the  vegetable 
world.  An  arbitrary  form  of  religious  truth  is  just 
as  powerfully  resisted  by  this  conviction  of  the  unity 
of  the  universe  as  an  arbitrary  form  of  any  other  truth  ; 
and  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  arbitrary  methods  of  ex- 
hibiting religious  truths  have  been  productive  of  doubt 
and  difficulty  in  thousands  who  have  felt  unable  to  re- 
ceive views  inharmonious  with  the  unity  of  all  things. 

But  this  very  conviction  of  unity  becomes  a  power- 
ful authority,  commanding  the  mind,  when  Christian 
truth  is  seen  to  be  a  part  of  the  great  unity ;  when  the 
declared  principles  of  the  divine  government  over  men 
are  perceived  to  be  the  same  principles,  applied  to  new 
subjects  that  we  can  so  easily  trace  in  Nature ;  when 
the  spiritual  facts  asserted  are  explanatory  of  the 
natural  facts  which  need  the  explanation.  Until  we 
liave  gained  such  a  knowledge  of  Nature  as  enables 
us  to  compare  its  principles  with  tliose  of  Christianity, 
we  must  necessarily  hold  our  Christianity  in  a  separate 
and  somewhat  arbitrary  manner,  resting  our  faith  on 
authority,  or  on  the  moral  harmony  of  Christianity 
with  our  own  souls.  It  will  not  seem  to  be  supported 
by  the  great  system  of  Nature,  and  may  seem  at  vari- 


192  GOD   IN  NATURE   AND   LIFE. 

ous  points  to  be  opposed  to  Nature.  And  though 
these  facts  need  not,  cannot,  destroy  our  faith,  yet  that 
faitli  would  gain  new  power  and  value  if  we  could  see 
and  feel  that  that  great  Nature  which  is  nearest  to  us 
supports  and  authorizes  and  illustrates  the  spiritual 
truths  which  we  believe.  And  as  the  expanding  dis- 
coveries of  the  unity  of  Nature  have  come  under  the 
light  of  revelation,  it  has  been  more  and  more  seen 
that  Christianity  is  the  explanation  of  that  unity. 
Christianity  is  the  true  explanation  of  the  meaning 
of  Nature ;  and  when  by  knowing  Nature  we  are  able 
to  connect  its  facts  with  their  divine  and  spiritual 
meaning,  then  every  truth  of  Nature  becomes  spiritual 
to  us,  and  contributes  to  the  spiritual  education  which 
is  the  object  of  this  whole  earthly  life  and  discipline. 
If  knowledge  of  the  spiritual  realities,  of  God,  His 
government  and  will,  our  relations  to  Him,  the  moral 
sources  of  our  welfare,  were  dependent  upon  the  sci- 
entific knowledge  of  Nature,  that  scientific  knowledge 
would  have  no  value  to  us  in  this  respect,  for  it  could 
never  reveal  these  realities.  But  when  we  know  each 
of  these  classes  of  truths  by  its  own  proper  method, 
the  comparison  of  them  sheds  important  and  valuable 
light  both  upon  Nature  and  upon  Christian  truth. 

The  knowledge  of  material  Nature  does  thus  become 
a  source  of  conviction  for  spiritual  realities,  not  original, 
but  secondary  and  confirmatory.  Its  value  lies  chiefly 
in  its  power  to  enlarge  our  views,  to  make  them  more 
comprehensive  and  universal,  to  deliver  us  from  the  nar- 
row dogmatism  that  is  so  unlike  the  character  of  our 
all-comprehending  religion,  and  to  give  us  the  effect  of 
the  infinite  in  all  the  finite,  of  the  whole  in  every  part. 


SOURCES  OF  SPIRITUAL  CONVICTION.  193 

We  must  also  reckon  among  our  sources  of  knowl- 
edge that  which  is  called  Experience.  This  is  what 
man  learns  by  living.  It  is  a  source  of  knowledge  far 
more  extensive  than  science,  because  it  includes  all  the 
powers  and  activities  of  the  mind,  both  intellectual  and 
moral.  Our  souls  are  set  in  the  midst  of  the  busy 
forces  that  are  ever  at  work  in  the  universe,  open  on  all 
sides  to  their  power  and  impressions.  These  streams  of 
power  and  influence  flow  through  us  as  they  do  through 
all  things  else.  The  impressions  thus  passively  received 
from  the  external  world  result  in  knowledge  and  con- 
victions of  truth  to  which  the  strongest  certainty  is 
attached.  Our  activities  of  mind  and  exercises  of 
affection  result  in  still  more  numerous  and  distinct 
convictions.  Infinitely  more  is  given  us  than  we  get; 
we  learn  passively,  as  well  as  by  intention  and  con- 
scious study.  Life  is  a  mightier  teacher  than  all 
schools.  We  are  borne  on  by  the  rush  of  worlds  faster 
than  our  own  feet  can  ever  carry  us.  Our  philosophy 
cannot  arrange  our  impressions  as  fast  as  they  are  ac- 
quired, and  so  they  lie  in  heaps  in  the  soul,  and  are 
often  in  the  way  of  free  thinking  and  easy  believing. 
If  the  little  that  teachers  and  study  can  do  for  us  were 
all  the  help  we  could  have,  we  might  be  ever  studying, 
and  never  able  to  come  to  the  knowledge  of  truth.  But 
we  are  forced  to  know ;  life  and  experience  do  not  wait 
for  us  to  ask  :  before  we  speak  they  answer.  From  tlie 
impressions  and  results  of  experience,  philosophy  is 
continually  striving  to  construct  a  science  of  ultimate 
truth.  For  as  science  is  limited  to  material  Nature,  so 
philosopliy  is  limited  to  the  conscious  exjierience  of  the 
soul.     It  has  and  uses  no  other  material,  and  seeks  to 

13 


194  GOD   IN  NATURE   AND   LIFE. 

know  all  things  in  their  last  and  complete  value  through 
the  study  of  the  soul  itself. 

The  exaltation  of  experience  as  a  source  of  knowledge 
and  truth,  even  above  its  real  value,  is  the  characteristic 
of  a  most  popular  style  of  literature,  in  whicli  the  soul 
is  the  oracle  whose  utterances  must  give  law  to  faith 
and  life.  Humanity  is  the  highest  law  to  itself.  We 
are  taught  to  trust  that  alone  which  our  own  experience 
teaches.  Formerly  we  were  entertained  by  the  struggles 
of  the  hero  against  the  most  dreadful  array  of  outward 
circumstances.  Hercules  and  his  twelve  labors  stood 
as  the  model  for  all  heroes.  Now  we  are  entertained 
with  the  interior  strugglings  of  tlie  soul  M-ith  doubt. 
The  tragedy  derives  its  horror  from  the  agonies  of  the 
soul  in  its  spiritual  conflicts,  and  the  wail  of  distressed 
maidens  summoning  their  knights  to  the  rescue  gives 
place  to  the  wail  of  troubled  souls  who  turn  their 
backs  to  the  sun,  and  are 

"  Like  an  infant  in  the  night, 
An  infant  crying  for  the  light, 
And  with  no  language  but  a  cry." 

Literature  has  thus  withdrawn  from  the  field  of  action, 
and  expends  itself  in  the  delineation  of  the  inner  life 
and  the  phases  of  the  soul's  experience. 

I  do  not  say  that  this  is  not  an  advance;  yet  in  so 
far  as  men  seek  satisfaction  for  the  soul's  questionings 
in  the  soul's  experience  alone,  they  seek  in  vain,  and 
lead  themselves  astray.  Our  experience  of  life  and 
the  world  does  not  give  us  any  spiritual  fact  outside  of 
ourselves ;  it  only  creates  a  demand  for  those  spiritual 
facts  of  which  it  develops  the  need,  but  which  it  cannot 


SOURCES   OF   SPIRITUAL  CONVICTION.  195 

reach.  Experience  docs  not  reveal  God  to  us,  but  it 
does  reveal  to  us  the  need  of  God.  Experience  does 
not  reveal  to  us  a  Redeemer,  but  it  does  create  the 
want  of  a  Eedeemer,  and  lead  to  desire  for  one.  Ex- 
perience does  not  make  a  revelation,  but  it  does  make 
the  counterpart  of  a  revelation,  that  which  in  the  soul 
answers  to  revelation.  It  is  the  deep  which  calls  to  the 
deep  of  the  spiritual  world.  Experience  reveals  to  us 
responsibility  and  dependence,  sin  and  ruin ;  but  it 
docs  not  reveal  to  us  the  spiritual  facts  that  correspond 
to  and  explain  the  experience  of  sin  and  responsibility 
and  dependence.  By  these  contrasts  the  value  of  ex- 
perience as  a  source  of  knowledge  for  spiritual  facts  is 
intimated.  It  is  a  source  of  conviction,  but  only  when 
those  facts  are  revealed.  Tliey  must  be  declared  to  the 
soul  from  without,  for  it  is  shut  up  at  home,  and  cannot 
go  beyond  the  limitations  of  its  own  finite  nature.  The 
experience  of  mankind,  disengaged  from  the  systems 
which  in  the  absence  of  revelation  have  grown  up  upon 
it,  is  the  qualification  for  the  knowledge  and  conviction 
of  the  real  spiritual  facts  of  revelation,  and  constitutes 
that  preparation  and  capacity  to  which  the  spiritual 
facts  of  religion  must  be  directly  addressed.  Let  the 
chords  of  that  experience  be  directly  struck  by  the 
great  spiritual  facts  of  revelation,  and  they  cannot 
refuse  to  respond.  The  soul  impelled  by  its  own  ex- 
perience feels  darkly  and  gropingly  after  God,  if  haply 
it  may  find  Him.  Count  on  this,  and  declare  Him  as 
He  is  manifested,  and  we  need  only  to  declare  Him. 

We  should  not  undervalue  the  experience  of  mankind 
because  humanitarians  have  exalted  it  into  a  separate 
religion,  or  used  it  to  sustain  a  pantheism  which  denies 


196  GOD  IN  NATURE   AND   LIFE. 

any  spiritual  realities  beyond  those  of  experience.  That 
personal  experience  which  arises  from  the  practical  ac- 
ceptance of  revelation  and  the  submission  of  the  soul 
to  faith  in  its  teachings  is  a  still  higher  authority,  and 
a  more  satisfactory  source  of  conviction ;  yet  it  is 
strictly  personal,  and  confers  its  benefits  only  upon  the 
soul  in  which  it  arises.  Experience  does  not  reveal 
the  pole-star  of  human  life  and  destiny,  but  it  urgently 
calls  for  it  by  the  tremulous  vibrations  and  the  ceaseless 
perturbations  of  its  perpetual  unrest.  The  soul  longs, 
it  hungers  and  thirsts,  but  only  in  self-consuming  un- 
satisfiedness,  till  God  comes  forth  to  meet  it  with  an 
objective  revelation  of  Himself,  answering  to  the  thirst 
which  He  has  created.  Hunger  is  felt,  but  hunger 
does  not  make  its  own  supply. 

In  so  far,  therefore,  as  the  spiritual  facts  when  re- 
vealed meet  and  satisfy  the  needs  of  experience,  it  is 
proper  to  demand  the  faith  and  submission  of  the  soul 
to  them.  Because  a  man  feels  responsibility,  he  may 
be  required  to  believe  in  his  personal  relations  to  a 
God,  a  judgment,  and  a  future  condition  answering  to 
his  character.  Because  he  experiences  a  constant  de- 
pendence, he  may  justly  be  required  to  submit  himself 
to  the  providence  of  God,  and  repose  in  faith  upon  it. 
Because  he  experiences  depravit}'^  and  guilt,  he  may 
be  required  to  accept  a  redemption  which  meets  his 
need. 

Still  another  source  of  knowledge  is  found  in  out- 
ward Testimony ;  in  which  is  included  all  historic 
proof,  and  the  value  of  all  such  evidences  as  appeal  to 
the  intellectual  laws  of  belief  and  are  designed  to  con- 
vince and  satisfy  the  logical  reason.    The  spiritual  facts 


SOURCES  OF  SPIRITUAL  CONVICTION.  197 

which  concern  us  so  deeply  if  true  are  asserted,  and 
the  question  is,  what  reason  we  have  for  believing  the 
witness,  beyond  tlie  moral  force  of  the  truth  itself. 
Why  must  we  have  a  reason  of  this  kind  at  all  ?  Why 
not  accept  or  reject  the  assertion  by  the  judgments  of 
experience  and  the  conscience  ?  Thousands  have  ac- 
cepted these  spiritual  facts,  and  governed  their  lives  by 
them,  merely  because  the  spiritual  facts  asserted  found 
confirmation  in  their  own  consciousness,  without  so 
much  as  considering  the  question  of  external  evidence 
or  the  necessities  of  the  logical  reason.  Lut  with  others, 
and  perhaps  with  all  at  some  period  of  their  progress, 
it  becomes  necessary  to  a  complete  belief  in  these 
spiritual  facts  that  the  intellectual  questions  should  be 
answered,  and  the  logical  reason  satisfied.  The  child  is 
content  to  believe  anything  not  contradictory,  with  un- 
questioning faith,  until  the  awakening  of  his  intellect 
requires  that  he  shall  have  a  reason.  When  that  de- 
mand is  satisfied,  he  resumes  his  faith,  and  only  believes 
with  clearer  conviction  what  he  believed  before.  And 
herein  is  the  whole  process  of  the  soul's  education. 
The  value  of  all  evidences  that  are  addressed  to  the 
intellect  is  that  such  evidences  give  to  the  mind  sat- 
isfactory forms  of  truth.  It  may  be  said  that  the 
purpose  and  business  of  the  intellect  and  logical  rea- 
son is,  first,  as  a  contrivance  of  the  Creator,  to  enable 
man  to  separate  himself  from  matter :  as  a  power  to 
make  abstractions,  and  so  to  be  able  to  think  ideas 
apart  from  materialities,  with  which  his  mind  would 
otherwise  be  enslaved  and  identified.  In  so  far  as  it 
is  more  than  this,  it  is  to  create  in  the  mind  an  ideal 
model  of  the  external  universe.     A  man  is  not  content 


198  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

that  the  universe  should  exist  outside  of  himself,  but  is 
impelled  to  get  it  into  his  own  mind,  in  the  form  of  an 
ideal  reproduction  ;  and  his  intellect  and  logical  reason 
are  the  powers  by  which  he  is  enabled  to  construct  in 
his  own  mind  an  ideal  universe  corresponding  to  the 
real.  AVhen  spiritual  facts  are  to  be  admitted  into  that 
ideal,  it  is  necessary  that  they  should  pass  through  the 
analysis  of  the  intellect  and  the  criticism  of  the  logical 
reason,  in  order  to  gain  their  place  in  this  cosmos  of 
ideas.  Tlie  mind  therefore  questions  their  real  existence 
by  the  same  principles  by  which  it  tests  other  facts, 
and  by  criticism  and  comparison  assigns  them  their 
place.  When  the  process  is  completed,  the  result  is 
simply  that  those  facts  are  admitted  into  the  mind's 
ideal  universe  as  true  elements  of  its  constitution. 
But  this  is  a  result  that  does  not  involve  the  conscience 
and  the  heart  :  it  does  not  connect  those  spiritual 
facts  with  the  experience  and  the  affections,  to  make 
them  moral  powers  and  spiritual  convictions.  When 
the  mind  is  engaged  in  building  its  systems,  it  needs 
these  proofs  furnished  to  the  logical  reason ;  but  when 
the  soul  is  seeking  for  a  spiritual  rest,  when  it 
strives  for  that  truth  which  shall  meet  its  deep-felt 
need,  we  cannot  meet  it  by  our  abstract  systems  and 
critical  evidences.  It  is  not  for  a  consistent  system 
that  the  soul  is  seeking,  but  for  some  great  spiritual 
reality  upon  which  it  can  cast  the  weight  of  all  its 
spiritual  cares,  and  which  shall  come  self-proved. 

In  so  far  as  testimony  establishes  the  historic  facts 
of  religion,  it  constitutes  a  reason  for  believing  the 
doctrines  which  depend  on  those  facts ;  but  the  belief 
that  they  are  adapted  to  produce  is  little  more  than  an 


SOURCES  OF  SPIRITUAL  CONVICTION.  199 

iutellectual  consent  to  give  those  doctrines  a  place  in 
the  intellectual  system.  Yet  of  itself,  and  alone,  this 
is  not  the  kind  of  proof  on  which  we  can  rely  in  the 
practical  attempt  to  procure  men's  submission  and 
affection.  All  the  external,  historic,  critical  evidence 
of  the  real  divine  character  of  Jesus  will  only  estaLlish 
that  fact  in  the  region  of  intellectual  ideas  as  distin- 
guished from  that  of  vital  spiritual  conviction  ;  and  this 
most  weighty  truth  will  exist  only  as  an  accepted 
dogma,  —  as  it  does  in  reality  exist  in  the  intellectual 
belief  of  tliousands,  without  power  or  impression  on  tlie 
heart  and  life.  Testimony,  including  all  such  proof  of 
spiritual  facts  as  may  be  addressed  to  man's  logical  rea- 
son, has  this  great  value,  that  it  satisfies  the  necessities  of 
the  intellect,  removes  the  hindrances  to  faith  that  would 
exist  while  the  intellect  was  unsatisfied,  and  opens  tlie 
way  through  the  intellect  to  the  heart  and  conscience. 
The  intellect  and  the  logical  reason,  with  their  critical 
proofs,  may  be  the  priests  of  the  outer  court;  they 
serve  at  the  brazen  altar  ;  they  order  the  system  :  but 
they  are  not  the  high-priest  who  goes  inside  the  veil 
into  the  awful  Presence  which  dwells  between  the 
cherubim,  and  holds  converse  with  Jehovah  face  to 
face,  and  feels  the  dread  realities  of  the  spiritual  world 
as  real  and  present  facts.  It  is  not  by  his  reason  that 
man  meets  his  God,  and  it  is  not  by  his  reason  that  he 
appropriates  for  practical  purposes  of  life  any  spiritual 
fact.  It  is  not  even  by  his  reason  that  he  gets  those 
facts  ;  they  are  given  to  him  by  other  means,  and  his 
reason  only  harmonizes  and  arranges  them.  The  logi- 
cal reason  is  not  competent  to  reject  any  spiritual  fact 
without  the  concurrence  of  the  moral  judgment  of  the 


200  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

heart  and  conscience.  The  most  that  it  is  competent 
to  do  is  to  hold  the  mind  in  suspense  until  further 
light  shall  arise  upon  the  question.  The  world  is  on 
the  way  toward  finding  out  that  the  logical  reason  is 
essentially  material,  and  that  the  intellectual  life  is  but 
a  refined  materialism,  a  mere  life  of  calculation  and 
comparison,  and  that  we  lose  the  greater  half  of  truth 
by  making  the  mere  reason  judge  of  all  things.  Be- 
tween Materialism  and  Idealism  we  need  to  set  a 
Christian  Ilealism. 

We  have  still  to  observe  one  more  source  of  knowl- 
edge and  conviction  regarding  spiritual  facts,  and  that 
is  found  in  the  principle  of  Faith.  There  is  a  faith,  so 
called,  which  rests  on  testimony  or  evidence  foreign  to 
the  soul,  and  which  believes  in  facts  because  they  are 
adequately  proved  by  external  evidence.  There  is  also 
a  faith  which  receives  and  trusts  spiritual  facts  because 
they  correspond  with  the  soul's  interior  experience  and 
moral  nature.  The  soul  of  man  profoundly  questions 
the  meaning  and  the  destiny  of  life,  and  that  which 
answers  such  questions  satisfactorily  to  the  soul  is  re- 
ceived and  trusted  because  it  does  answer  them,  with- 
out any  criticism  of  the  way  in  which  the  answer  comes 
or  the  external  authority  by  which  it  is  commended : 
and  this  alone  is  faith,  in  respect  to  spiritual  facts. 
The  sanctions  of  material  facts  are  in  the  logical  rea- 
son :  the  sanctions  of  spiritual  facts  are  in  the  spirit- 
ual nature  and  experience  of  the  soul.  They  cannot  be 
proved  otherwise.  Man  is  not  a  spiritual  being  because 
he  is  a  rational  being,  but  because  he  is  a  moral  being, 
and  joined  to  the  spiritual  world  by  moral  relations. 
As  ,the  imagination  is  the  airent  which  the    intellect 


SOURCES  OF  SPIRITUAL  CONVICTION.  201 

sends  out  to  find  the  truths  that  it  seeks,  so  faitli  is  the 
agent  that  the  soul  sends  out  to  find  the  truths  that  it 
seeks.  The  soul  has  no  other  power  by  which  to  seize 
spiritual  truth.  The  truest  and  oldest  law  of  life  is 
faith :  the  just  shall  live  by  it,  and  so  must  every  man, 
or  he  must  live  a  false  life,  and  wither  and  shrivel  up 
in  the  barrenness  of  intellectual  abstraction.  Every 
planet,  every  star,  every  river,  every  beast  and  bird  and 
man,  finds  all  its  progress  and  motion  in  falling  forward. 
This  is  the  law  of  advancement,  in  all  Nature.  In  the 
soul,  faith  is  that  falling  forward  by  which  it  meets 
and  feels  the  power  of  spiritual  realities,  and  to  which 
the  revelation  of  spiritual  facts  is  addressed.  On  this 
principle  every  man  holds  every  spiritual  truth  which 
in  any  practical  sense  he  holds  at  all.  I  am  no 
worshipper  of  self-po.ssession.  There  is  a  species  of 
self-possession  which  shuts  up  the  soul  in  itself,  and 
excludes  the  inflow  of  truth  and  the  divine  from  the 
universe.  There  is  a  losing  of  one's  self  in  abandon- 
ment to  God,  to  find  one's  self  in  His  world. 

On  the  supposition  that  the  real  spiritual  facts 
that  belong  to  us  are  offered  us  in  revelation,  they 
must  assure  themselves  to  us  by  their  fitness  to  our 
experience  and  consciousness ;  and  faith  accepts  them 
because  they  do  thus  assure  themselves  to  us.  And 
by  faith  tlie  soul  gets  them  directly,  and  in  their  highest 
value.  There  are  those  who  call  for  facts,  historic  facts, 
and  decry  all  attemi)ts  to  demand  faith  in  spiritual 
facts  for  their  own  sake  ;  and  who  forget  that  conscience 
and  experience  and  faith  are  facts  as  real  as  any  other. 
These  are  they  to  whom  Jesus  would  say,  "  Except  ye 
see  signs  and  wonders,  ye  will  not  believe."     Let  them 


202  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

be  tliaukful  that  tliey  have  their  "  signs ;  "  and  we  will 
rejoice  that  on  such  grounds  they  M-ill  believe,  — 
though  they  deceive  themselves  in  supposing  that  they 
believe  on  such  grounds  alone.  Jesus  said  to  those 
around  Him,  "  Believe  me  that  I  am  in  the  Father ;  or 
else  believe  me  for  the  works'  sake ; "  from  which 
we  must  infer  that  to  believe  for  the  works'  sake  is  a 
little  better  than  nothing,  but  that  a  far  truer  and 
better  faith  is  that  which  believes  Him  for  what  He 
is,  —  from  the  impression  of  His  character  and  the  natu- 
ral fitness  of  His  teaching  to  the  soul's  experience  and 
consciousness.  As  spiritual  realities  cannot  be  shown 
materially,  they  must  be  exhibited  not  to  the  material 
senses  or  the  material  intellect,  but  to  what  is  spiritual 
in  man,  and  can  be  apprehended  only  by  the  moral 
nature.  And  whoever  studies  the  method  of  teaching 
that  distinguished  Christ,  will  observe  that  it  is  simply 
declaratory,  as  if  what  He  said  needed  but  to  be  said  ; 
and  that  He  evidently  depended  upon  being  understood 
in  just  the  degree  in  which  His  hearers  were  morally 
susceptible,  not  in  the  degree  in  which  they  were 
mentally  capable.  He  spoke  as  if  the  souls  of  His 
hearers  would  furnish  the  proof  of  what  He  said.  And 
does  not  man  always  so  speak  in  moments  of  highest 
exaltation  ?  Does  not  the  poet  so  speak,  and  thereby 
show  that  he  depends  far  more  on  faith  than  upon 
reason  ?  It  is  more  natural  to  us  to  believe  than  it  is 
to  reason  :  surely,  therefore,  to  believe  is  as  legitimate  as 
to  reason,  and  the  convictions  of  faith  are  of  just  as 
high  authority  as  the  decisions  of  reason,  and  we  are 
as  sure  of  truth  in  trusting  what  the  soul  sanctions  as 
in  relying  on  the  correctness  of  our  reasonings.     It  is  as 


SOURCES  OF  SPIRITUAL  CONVICTION.  203 

easy  to  reason  badly  as  it  is  to  misunderstand  our  own 
experience.  Faith  is  a  legitimate  source  of  conviction ; 
and  its  value  to  us  is  so  much  greater  than  that  of  all 
others,  as  by  it  we  get  truth  which  is  more  important 
than  all  other  truth,  and  get  it  in  more  vital  and  prac- 
tical relations  to  our  souls. 

According  to  the  views  that  have  now  been  taken, 
there  is  not  in  us,  either  in  the  intellect  or  in  the  soul, 
any  power  to  discover  spiritual  facts,  until  they  are 
revealed.  Science,  Logic,  Experience,  Faith,  are  seen 
only  as  qualifications  for  receiving  them  when  by  reve- 
lation they  have  been  given  us.  With  these  alone  as 
our  sources  of  spiritual  knowledge,  "  stars  silent  rest 
over  us,  graves  under  us  silent;"  the  soul  remains  in 
darkness,  all  its  questions  unanswered,  enveloped,  as  in 
a  quivering  anxiety,  in  unanswering  silence  and  night. 
Life  remains  a  terrible  riddle,  of  which  the  soul  can 
find  no  solution.  I  cannot  know  ;  loaded  with  all  the 
weight  of  my  cares  and  questions  and  dangers,  I  can 
find  no  guidance,  no  help,  no  light.  God  must  speak 
to  me.  On  the  ground  of  my  utter  dependence  I 
stand  to  claim  as  my  right  that  He  shall  speak  to  me ; 
for  I  must  otherwise  perish  for  lack  of  vision. 

But  it  may  be  seen  that  that  is  a  true  revelation 
which  simply  declares  the  real  spiritual  facts  of  the 
universe;  that  it  is  not  essential  to  a  revelation  that 
an  overwhelming  pressure  of  external  force  should 
accompany  it  in  order  to  secure  its  authority  in  the 
world.  The  spiritual  facts  of  the  universe  have  ex- 
isted forever,  and  the  soul  of  man  was  created  as 
a  counterpart  to  them;  and  it  is  only  necessary  that 
the  two  should    meet,    that    the  soul   may  be    bound 


204  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

by  the  spiritual  realities.  The  publication  of  a  law- 
completes  its  authority  ;  —  and  the  declaration  of  these 
spiritual  facts  biuds  the  world.  For  the  true  appre- 
hension of  these  facts  we  are  in  a  degree  disqualified 
by  the  perversion  of  our  moral  character,  by  the  dispo- 
sitions that  opj)ose  them  for  what  they  are,  without 
regard  to  their  truth  or  falsity.  Thus  our  original  de- 
pendence upon  God  for  the  revelation  of  spiritual  truth 
is  increased  to  a  dependence  upon  His  personal  influence 
upon  our  hearts  for  the  discernment  of  these  realities. 
But  the  soul  was  originally  made  thus  dependent  on 
Him,  that  He  might  talk  with  it.  The  soul  is  open  to 
God  on  its  moral  side ;  it  joins  on  to  the  spiritual  world, 
and  is  traversed  by  its  forces.  They  can  come  into  the 
soul  W'ithout  coming  through  the  gate  of  the  senses,  or 
passing  through  the  labyrinths  of  logic.  And  they  do 
come,  to  meet  and  authorize  and  enforce  the  divine 
declarations  which  enter  the  soul  on  its  other  side, 
toward  the  outer  world.  And  that  which  from 
without  comes  to  meet  the  intimations  of  sense,  the 
longings  of  experience,  the  falling  onward  of  faith,  is 
the  Manifested  God,  God  revealed  in  humanity,  com- 
ing forth  from  secrecy  into  sympathy  with  us,  —  the 
Word,  which  was  God,  and  was  made  flesh  and  dwelt 
among  us. 

For  conviction  and  experience  of  the  spiritual 
realities  of  God's  presence  and  personal  relation  to 
us,  and  of  all  spiritual  facts,  we  need  to  study  them 
more,  not  as  to  their  evidences,  not  as  to  their 
proper  logical  form,  but  as  to  their  real  nature  and 
relation  to  us.  We  need,  not  to  surround  them  with 
supports  of   language,  but    to  clear  away  from    them 


SOURCES  OF  SPIRITUAL  CONVICTION.  205 

everything  that  surrounds  them,  and  look  upon  them 
as  simply  as  possible  in  their  substance  and  reality. 
We  need  to  treat  them  as  facts,  —  which  is  the  highest 
test  of  their  truth  to  which  they  can  be  put.  We  need 
to  think  of  them  more  originally  and  simply,  more  by 
the  aid  of  experience  and  the  soul's  afiections,  less  by 
the  aid  of  criticism  and  logic.  And  in  teaching  them, 
we  should  strive  more  to  show  them,  plainly  and  dis- 
tinctly, than  to  defend  them  by  our  puny  logic.  We 
are  prone  to  feel  that  we  must  help  God ;  we  must 
bring  our  expedients,  and  organize  our  efforts,  and 
prevent  a  failure.  We  may  far  better  trust  to  the 
simple  showing,  the  plainest  possible  exhibition,  of 
spiritual  truth,  and  be  sure  that  God  and  His  truth 
can  live. 

It  is  not  proof  that  is  required,  so  much  as  expla- 
nation ;  and  let  us  not  forget  this  last  word,  that  in 
order  to  successful  explanation  there  must  be  pro- 
founder  spiritual  experience  in  those  who  would  ex- 
plain. When  wood  is  burned  in  the  air,  the  light 
and  heat  which  are  given  off  are  the  exact  equivalent 
of  the  light  and  heat  that  were  absorbed  by  the  wood 
while  it  was  orowinir.  It  is  the  same  light  and  heat 
that  the  wood  took  from  the  universe,  and  now  gives 
back.  Even  so  in  the  hi<j;her  things :  the  teacher  of 
spiritual  truth  can  give  to  the  world  only  the  light 
and  the  force  which  he  has  taken  into  his  own  soul 
from  the  truths  he  teaches. 


206  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 


STATEMENTS.! 

GENTLEMEN",  BROTHERS,  — My  theme  has  been 
announced  as  "Statements,"  without  any  limi- 
tation of  the  subject,  —  a  theme  much  too  large  for 
"  the  hour  and  the  man,"  if  it  were  designed  to  dis- 
cuss the  province,  value,  and  authority  of  statements 
in  all  the  branches  of  human  knowledge.  It  is  not, 
however,  discussion,  but  suggestion,  at  which  I  have 
aimed.  Statements  are  sufficiently  current  in  tlie 
world.  They  need  no  advocate  for  their  exi.stence  or 
their  value.  They  are  estimated  sufficiently  high. 
We  have  no  need  to  desire  any  greater  authority  or 
power  for  them.  We  may  need  to  guard  ourselves 
against  their  tendency  to  cumulate  power,  and  to 
take  the  place  of  the  truths  themselves  which  they 
seek  to  express.  It  is  usually  a  thankless  task  to 
undertake  to  mark  the  distinctions  between  the  sub- 
stance of  any  truth  and  the  form  of  tliat  truth  which 
time  and  use  have  rendered  sacred  in  tlie  regard  of 
men.  But  you  and  I  are  students,  not  for  a  term  of 
years,  but  through  all  terms  of  time  and  eternity;  and 
I  would  like  to  assert  for  you  and  for  myself  the  privi- 
lege of  going  beyond  and  behind  all  the  forms  of  truth 
that  men  have  prepared  for  us,  and  of  looking  at  truth 

1  A  lecture  before  a  society  of  students,  1859. 


STATEMENTS.  207 

in  its  own  original  and  eternal  forms.  It  will  be  no 
spirit  of  presumption,  no  mere  blind  iconoclasm,  that 
will  lead  us  to  assert  the  imperfection  of  statements, 
and  the  consequent  impossibility  of  rendering  to  them 
an  entire  mental  submission. 

Our  own  nature  and  the  universe  answer  to  each 
other.  There  is  a  universe  of  material  and  concrete 
ibrms,  —  suns,  stars,  rocks,  trees,  and  flowers.  They 
fill  space,  take  up  room,  are  solid  and  material.  Be- 
hind these  material  and  concrete  forms  lies  another 
universe  of  spiritual  forms  which  we  call  truths. 
These  are  the  background  in  front  of  which  the  rock 
towers  and  the  flower  blooms ;  these  underlie  and 
linger  lovingly  around  the  material  forms  to  which 
they  belong.  Man  is  himself  a  material  and  concrete 
form,  and  converses  by  his  senses  with  the  material 
forms  around  him.  Their  voices  speak  to  his  ear, 
and  his  senses  reply  with  thrills  of  delight.  Their 
colors  and  their  shadows  speak  to  his  eye,  and  his 
senses  answer  in  mute  joy  the  mute  appeal.  But  as 
behind  the  substantial  forms  of  Nature  lie  the  spirit- 
ual forn)s  of  truth,  so  behind  the  material,  physical 
life  of  man  stands  the  spiritual  man,  living,  looking, 
loving  itself  forth  toward  all  around.  Between  this 
spiritual  man  and  these  spiritual  forms  of  the  universe 
of  truths  have  been  placed,  first  his  own  body,  behind 
which  he  must  still  abide,  and  then  the  bodies  of  these 
truths,  in  which  they  also  have  been  expressed.  The 
material  universe  thus  rises  up  as  a  mountain-chain 
between  two  seas,  —  the  great  sea  of  spiritual  truth 
on  the  one  side,  and  the  lesser  sea  of  human  con- 
sciousness and  understanding  on  tlie  other.     But  deep 


208  GOD  IN  NATURE   AND  LIFE. 

calleLh  unto  deep.     The  deep  that  spreads  bouudless 
beyond  the  material  forms  of  the  universe  calls  to  the 
deep  tliat  spreads  boundless  beyond  the  physical  life 
of  man.     To  both  God  has  given  one  great  necessity  : 
they  must  speak.     In  some  form  or  other  they  must 
get  themselves  stated  and  expressed.     The  soul  in  man 
presses  resistlessly  to  some  expression  of  itself     It  is 
not  enough  that  it  lives,  that  it  knows,  that  it  loves : 
it  must  also  project  its  life,  its  knowledge,  and  its  love 
out  of  itself  in  some  form  of  statement.     And  equally 
do  those  great  spiritual   truths   and   forces  which   lie 
behind   the   material  forms  of  Nature    press   to   some 
expression    of    themselves.      They    seem    to  go    about 
looking  for  room   on  the  great  page  of  the  earth  to 
write  their  names  or  paint  their  images.     All  concrete 
forms   on   earth    are   such   images   and  expressions    of 
these  spiritual  truths.     But  chiefly  they  appear  to  wish 
to  speak  to  us.     True,  they  are  as  busily  expressing 
themselves  where  the  eye  of  man  never  sees  and  his 
ear  never  hears  them ;  but  this  is  like  a  soul  so  over- 
full of  life  and  thought  that  it  speaks  and  must  speak, 
though  only  the  great  Spirit  of  the  universe   should 
hear.      When    man    comes,    the    true    listener    seems 
present.     The  meaning  of  all  created  things  seems  to 
have  reference  to  man.     He  is  the  sovereign  to  whom 
the  tribute  of  truth  is  paid  by  all  the  material  forms 
amid   which  he  lives.     The  flower  that   grows  by  his 
path  looks  up  to  him  as  he  passes,  and  opens  its  rosy 
lips  to  speak  to  him  of  a  thousand  tilings  which  the 
eye  never   saw   nor   the   ear   heard.      Great    thoughts 
of  God's   own   mind,   great    harmonies    of  His    being 
(sometimes   called    natural    laws),   speak    out    to     us 


STATEMENTS.  209 

through  the  rolling  planet,  through  the  whispering 
leaves,  through  tlie  songs  of  birds  and  the  tinkle  of 
the  stream. 

These  truths,  these  great  thoughts  of  God,  have  been 
partially  stated  in  the  forms  that  express  them  and 
through  which  they  seem  to  try  to  be  expressed,  A 
rock,  a  rose,  a  cloud,  a  stream,  is  a  statement  of  a 
spiritual  truth,  an  utterance  of  a  thought.  Under  the 
rock,  beliind  the  cloud,  there  is  something  not  material 
but  spiritual,  a  meaning,  a  law,  a  truth,  —  a  portion  of 
that  great  spiritual  universe  which  flows  around  mate- 
rial forms,  like  magnetic  currents  round  and  through 
the  earth.  As  these  truths  and  thoughts  seek  thus 
to  state  themselves  in  material  forms  and  talk  in  winds 
and  woods  and  waves,  so  is  man  impelled  also  to  state 
himself,  and  talk  out  his  meaning  in  his  works  and  by 
his  words.  It  is  as  if  the  spiritual  truths  of  the  uni- 
verse, unsatisfied  with  the  statement  of  themselves 
which  they  get  by  means  of  natural  objects,  sought  to 
give  themselves  to  us,  in  order  to  find  a  more  perfect 
statement  through  us  and  our  modes  of  expression,  and 
get  themselves  recognized  not  only  in  Nature  but  in 
our  world  also.  We  may  pity  them  most  heartily  that 
so  often,  instead  of  being  better  stated  than  they  are 
in  rocks  and  ilowers  and  fields  and  streams,  they  are 
cruelly  distorted  and  belied,  and  made  to  tell  lies  in 
the  presence  of  the  God  they  seek  to  reveal  and  honor ; 
still  it  is  our  work  to  state  these  truths,  and  give  them 
utterance  through  us.  God  has  given  us  in  the  uni- 
verse of  created  forms  so  many  words,  and  now  He 
says  to  you  and  me,  "  Give  the  definition." 

All  science  busies  itself  in  the  attempt  to  state  some 
14 


210  GOD   IN  NATURE   AND   LIFE. 

of  these  spiritual  laws,  ideas,  and  harmonies,  which 
connect  the  scattered  and  isolated  facts  and  forms  of 
the  material  world.  Science  is  the  printer's  composi- 
tor, who  gathers  these  scattered  types  and  sets  them 
up  so  that  their  spiritual  meaning  can  be  read.  These 
facts  are  the  scattered  notes  of  the  music  of  the 
spheres;  science  puts  the  notes  in  some  order  upon 
some  staff  of  system,  so  that  "  harpers  with  their 
harps "  may  give  the  world  some  portion  of  that 
heavenly  song.  All  science  is  thus  but  statement  of 
ideal  spiritual  truth. 

All  philosophy  is  but  statement  of  spiritual  truths 
which  are  manifested  in  consciousness,  life,  and  will. 
Philosophy  is  not  truth,  but  only  the  attempt  to  state 
some  certain  sides  and  qualities  of  truth.  All  philosophy 
is  mere  statement.  So  a  man  may  know  philosophy, 
and  not  shake  hands  thereby  with  truth.  I  should 
say  to  the  soul  in  love  with  philosophy,  "  Your  mis- 
tress, whom  you  so  exalt  above  all  others,  whom  you 
worship  with  pet  names,  calling  her  divine  philosophy, 
is  after  all  no  living  thing,  but  is  only  a  form,  a 
statement." 

All  literature,  going  forth  among  the  passions  of 
mankind,  and  studying  the  play  of  love,  the  drama  of 
life,  the  tragedy  of  hate,  the  comedies  of  wit  or  the 
gorgeous  fictions  of  imagination,  brings  back  to  us 
nothing  but  statements. 

Theology  can  do  no  more.  It  can  only  give  us 
statements  of  trutlis  too  great  to  be  stated,  too  vital  to 
be  crystallized  into  any  form  of  dogma,  doctrine,  or 
creed.  The  science  of  God  and  of  our  divine  relations 
really  exists,  for  these  are  truths  and  facts  of  the  uni- 


STATEMENTS.  211 

verse ;  but  theology  at  its  best  estate  can  only  give  us 
statements  about  that  science. 

So  then  there  is  a  great  and  wide  world  of  truth, 
of  spiritual  law  and  beauty  and  power,  —  and  that  is 
one  thing.  All  statements,  all  books,  all  language,  — 
that  is  another  thing.  Let  me  know,  let  me  never 
forget,  that  if  truth  exists  at  all  in  statements  and  in 
books,  it  exists  there  at  second  hand  and  in  a  frao-- 
mentary,  cabinet-specimen  form,  and  that  the  great 
ocean  is  without.  I  may  catch  in  the  library  the  faint, 
weak  murmur  of  the  great  sea,  as  children  catch  the 
solemn  monotone  of  the  ocean  by  listening  at  the  shell 
which  its  waves  have  washed  ashore;  but  the  great 
ocean  is  not  in  the  library.  Men  like  me  went  out 
alone  for  themselves,  and  walked  silently  along  the 
shores;  the  breezes  of  the  great  sea  blew  upon  them, 
they  heard  its  voices,  and  they  made  a  statement,  and 
the  printer  printed  it,  and  the  binder  bound  it,  and 
the  merchant  sold  it ;  and  is  that  all  that  I  may  have  ? 
If  I  may  also  go  out  for  myself,  listen  with  my  own 
ears,  touch  with  my  own  hands,  and  make  my  own 
statement  for  myself,  shall  I  not  do  it  ?  Is  the  right 
and  privilege  of  observation  and  direct  communion 
with  truth  given  only  to  two  or  three,  and  must  all 
the  rest  see  only  by  borrowing  their  eyes  ? 

It  makes  a  great  difference  whether  statements  are 
capable  of  expressing  the  whole  of  any  truth  or  not. 
If  words  are  higher  and  mightier  than  truth,  and  can 
subdue  and  chain  truth  to  statements,  we  may  perhaps 
depend  upon  statements  for  truth.  But  truth  is  spir- 
itual, and  words  are  physical ;  and  no  statement  of  a 
truth  can  perfectly  express  that  truth,  or  even  the  one 


212  GOD   IN  NATURE   AND   LIFE. 

side  of  the  truth  which  it  attempts  to  express.  Eacli 
truth  is  the  blood-cousin  of  every  other  truth  ;  its  re- 
lations are  infinite,  and  its  meaning  lies  in  these  rela- 
tions. The  less  cannot  contain  the  greater ;  the  single 
statement  cannot  contain  the  truth,  which  is  so  largely 
plural  in  its  relations  and  meanings.  Truth  flows  be- 
neath the  material  world  in  an  ever-movin<f  changinfj 
stream.  A  man  may  dip  a  cupful  by  a  statement,  but 
that  is  all,  and  when  it  rests  in  his  cup  it  has  lost  its 
greatest  cliaracteristics,  for  it  has  lost  its  relations  and 
its  flow.  Tliere  is  no  isolation  of  any  truth.  No  one 
truth  in  all  the  universe  stands  by  itself  alone,  so  that 
it  can  be  picked  up  and  carried  away  in  its  entireuess, 
and  so  that  one  can  say,  "  Here  it  is,  and  the  whole  of 
it."  Has  the  soul  parts  ?  Can  it  be  taken  to  pieces  ? 
Or  has  it  only,  in  one  essence,  distinctions,  which  are 
distinguished  only  by  their  relations  to  each  other,  and 
not  by  separation  from  each  other  ?  So  is  truth,  —  it  is 
one,  in  an  infinite  variety.  Only  an  infinite  statement 
can  cover  or  contain  completely  any  truth,  for  to 
each  truth  belongs  this  character  of  infiniteness.  Two 
and  two  make  four;  how  simple  the  truth,  how  easy 
the  statement !  And  some  one  may  say  that  the  state- 
ment holds  the  whole  truth.  But  two  and  two  make 
four  in  every  case,  and  by  one  of  the  most  absolute 
necessities.  It  cannot  be  otherwise ;  through  all  eter- 
nity it  must  be  so.  Here  then  is  one  of  the  absolute 
decrees  of  Fate  and  the  Elder  Gods,  one  of  the  princi- 
ples and  bars  of  the  universe,  one  of  the  laws  of  divine 
thought,  one  of  the  modes  of  the  Infinite  Intellect. 
Behold,  through  this  little  door  we  have  passed  out 
into  infinitude  and  measureless  immensity,  where  our 


STATEMENTS.  213 

statemeiitrcups  can  only  cany  to  our  lips  a  momentary 
taste  of  the  great  ocean  ! 

We  are  continually  impelled,  indeed,  to  attempt  the 
statement  of  truth,  because  the  statement  helps  us  to 
appropriate  the  truth  as  our  own,  and  by  thus  appro- 
priating it  we  grow  in  capacity,  strength,  and  happi- 
ness. We  are  impelled  to  statements,  as  a  means  of 
getting  possession  of  the  truth.  But  all  statement  is 
necessarily  partial  and  imperfect,  for  the  reason  that 
there  is  an  endless  progress  for  the  soul,  and  the  in- 
finitude of  truth  is  God's  provision  for  that  endless 
progress.  There  is  too  much  of  truth  to  be  exhausted 
by  our  statements  in  this  very  first  portion  of  our 
endless  life  and  studies.  Statements  do  carry  over 
truth  from  the  great  ocean  of  truth  and  pour  it  into  the 
spirit  and  consciousness  of  men,  but  these  vessels  in 
which  it  is  carried  over  are  small,  and  can  carry  but 
very  little  at  most,  and  moreover  they  are  often  very 
leaky,  so  that  by  the  time  they  get  to  us  there  is 
nothincr  in  them  at  all.  But  whether  this  be  so  or 
not,  every  statement  is  small  and  partial  before  the 
greatness  of  truth  itself.  Why  then  should  we  exalt 
statements  in  science,  in  philosophy,  in  theology  ? 
How  can  any  statement  be  so  perfect  that  it  shall 
comprehend  the  whole  truth  ?  If  I  would  learn  any 
science,  why  should  I  get  all  the  statements  that 
others  have  made  in  regard  to  it,  and  conclude  that 
the  whole  science  is  in  the  definition  of  those  state- 
ments ?  Let  them  give  me  what  is  in  them,  and  that 
is  so  much,  but  not  all.  The  exaltation  of  any  formal 
statement  of  any  truth  into  a  finality  and  an  authority 
is  something  false.     To  render  our  submission  to  it  is 


214  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

as  much  a  species  of  superstition  and  idolatry,  as  not  to 
acknowledge  its  usefulness  by  way  of  help  is  a  species 
of  vain  pride  and  foolish  presumption.  Until  state- 
ments can  be  perfect,  and  express  all  that  is  or  can 
be  known  of  the  truths  they  assume  to  state,  I  will 
use  them,  but  they  shall  not  enslave  me.  If  they  are 
good  for  anything,  they  are  good  for  gateways,  through 
which  we  may  pass  to  the  open  country  beyond  them. 
Their  highest  and  best  use  is  to  make  themselves  use- 
less, by  carrying  the  mind  beyond  themselves  to  a  view 
in  which  the  eye  sees  more  than  the  statement  ex- 
presses. To  stop  at  the  statements,  to  make  our- 
selves dependent  upon  what  they  contain,  to  regard 
statements  gray  with  age  or  green  with  newness  as 
the  final  and  perfect  forms  of  truth  beyond  which 
there  is  no  need  or  call  to  go,  —  this  is  to  cramp  and 
dwarf  the  mind,  and  abandon  the  noblest  attribute 
of  humanity,  its  spiritual  freedom. 

Statements  must  be  imperfect,  not  only  because 
truth  is  greater  than  language,  but  because  all  state- 
ments must  have  reference  to  existing  times  and 
opinions,  and  times  and  opinions  are  not  always  the 
same.  To  the  sun  there  is  a  rising,  and  a  rising 
seldom  clear  and  unclouded,  and  through  his  whole 
course  earthly  vapors  veil  his  splendor  and  absorb 
his  warmth.  So  to  every  great  truth  there  is  a  rising, 
seldom  clear  and  unclouded:  for  every  such  truth 
there  is  also  a  course  to  run,  a  zenith  to  reach  by 
progressive  ascent.  We  say  it  is  eight  o'clock:  the 
statement  is  true  at  the  moment  when  the  sun  is  at 
eight  o'clock,  but  in  an  hour  that  statement  has  grown 
false,  and  we  must  make  another.     So  as  truths  have 


STATEMENTS.  215 

risen,  men  have  named  them,  and  stated  them.  As 
they  have  risen  higher,  by  their  development,  these 
first  statements  have  become  imperfect,  or  false,  and 
truer  ones  have  been  framed.  As  the  child  grows,  his 
clothes  must  be  made  larger  each  year :  and  we  talk 
of  clothing  truths.  Poor  things !  the  clothes  of  some 
of  them  are  terribly  antiquated  and  ragged.  As  there 
is  for  each  truth  of  science,  philosophy,  or  theology  a 
course  to  run,  a  development  in  the  human  under- 
standing, our  statements,  even  if  they  are  true,  can 
only  mark  the  present  state  of  that  truth,  and  tell 
where  it  is  at  present.  We  must  neither  accept  the 
statements  of  a  former  age  as  perfect  expressions  of 
the  truth,  nor  impose  our  own  as  authority  upon  those 
that  shall  come  after  us.  In  many  nations  the  snake 
has  been  an  emblem  of  wisdom  and  knowledge :  I 
know  not  why,  unless  it  be  from  the  tradition  of 
Eve's  temptation  by  the  serpent.  But  the  emblem  has 
at  least  this  one  propriety,  that  each  new  season,  with 
every  revival  of  nature,  the  serpent  sloughs  off  its  old 
skin :  just  as  truth  at  every  new  era  in  human  life  and 
thought  casts  off  the  old  skin  of  lifeless  statements, 
and  grows  larger  in  a  new  clothing. 

It  is  vain  to  attempt  to  arrest  the  growtli  of  truth 
by  a  statement,  to  say  of  any  truth,  "  So  it  is,  and  so 
it  shall  forever  be."  The  truth  and  the  life  of  the 
universe  push  onward  evermore  into  new  manifesta- 
tions and  new  creations,  outgrow  our  statements,  and 
demand  new  forms  of  expression.  Why  must  we  go 
back  to  some  troubled  era  of  dispute,  when  some  great 
man  stated  the  truth  as  it  then  was,  and  settle  there, 
and  say,  "  Here  the  universe  stopped   moving  :    there 


216  GOD    IN   NATURE   AND  LIFE. 

has  been  no  progress,  no  motion,  since  then  :  we  must 
abide  by  these  statements  forever  ?  "  Did  the  universe 
stop  there  ?  Did  Luther  and  Calvin  and  Knox  and 
Latimer  with  their  statements  block  the  advance  of 
the  world  ?  Did  Philosophy  after  the  labor  of  cen- 
turies and  millenniums  bring  forth  her  only  child,  and 
die  herself  in  giving  birth  to  William  Hamilton  ?  Are 
his  statements  henceforth  to  be  Philosophy  ?  As  in  the 
days  of  a  long-past  Chivalry,  when  brave  knights  clad 
in  steel  crossed  arms  in  lists  where  kings  looked  on 
and  beauty  carried  smiles  and  coronals  for  victors,  when 
the  deadly  strife  grew  awful  to  behold,  when  through 
iron  bars  welled  forth  the  life-blood  of  the  brave,  and 
death  held  carnival  with  fame,  over  the  fierce  battle- 
cry  of  Templar  and  St.  John,  over  the  clash  of  their 
axe  and  sword,  over  the  groans  of  the  dying,  rang  out 
like  a  trumpet-blast  the  herald's  cry,  "  Fight  on,  brave 
knights ;  man  dies,  but  glory  lives,"  —  so  in  the  broader 
lists  of  a  greater  strife,  where  the  eternities  look  on 
and  God  Himself  holds  out  the  prize,  there  too,  "  Man 
dies,  but  Truth  lives  on."  Whether  there  be  visions 
or  prophecies,  statements  or  systems,  they  shall  fail; 
but  truth  shall  shine  the  clearer  for  the  passing  away 
of  the  clouds  of  statement  through  which  it  has  shone 
so  dimly. 

The  world  is  where  it  never  was  before  in  all  its 
duration.  There  never  was  and  never  will  be  another 
such  hour  as  this.  Statements  made  in  other  and  dif- 
ferent times  cannot  suit  with  these,  without  modifica- 
tion or  explanation.  Thucydides  is  the  true  historian, 
because  he  made  statements  of  events  that  belonged  to 
his  own  time,  giving  the  form  of  the  present  to  the 


STATEMENTS.  217 

events  of  the  present.  And  what  concerns  us  is  to 
state  for  ourselves  the  truths  of  science  and  philosophy 
and  theology  as  they  now  arc,  and  not  be  frightened 
from  the  golden  treasure  by  the  terrors  of  offended 
antiquity.  As  the  earth  rolls  on,  each  object  comes 
under  new  light,  the  shaded  sides  are  illuminated,  and 
each  portion  receives  a  new  appearance ;  so  as  time 
rolls  on,  each  truth  comes  into  new  relations  and  re- 
veals new  sides.  The  old  pictures  of  these  truths, 
drawn  in  statements  by  old  masters,  are  very  precious 
as  representations  of  the  truth  in  the  conditions  and 
relations  of  those  times,  but  they  are  not  true  to  life 
now.  We  want  masters  too  in  the  present  as  well  as 
in  the  past  who  shall  give  us  true  and  faithful  portraits 
of  life  and  thought  as  it  now  is.  We  ought  not  to 
wish  to  reproduce  the  past,  merely  to  carry  back  the 
world  to  any  of  its  former  states;  but,  gathering  the 
harvest  of  the  past,  accepting  thankfully  the  rich 
legacy,  ours  is  the  task  of  interpreting  the  present, 
and  meeting  new  forms  of  thought,  of  question,  and  of 
doubt  with  fitting  forms  of  truth.  And  let  us  never 
hope  for  immortality  for  any  forms  or  statements  of 
truth,  however  perfect  they  may  be  to  us  now ;  for  that 
would  be  to  liope  that  truth  itself  should  cease  to  grow. 
No  science  has  exhausted  the  field  of  its  studies.  No 
scientific  statements  but  may  yet  require  to  be  modified 
to  admit  into  them  yet  undiscovered  trutli.  No  philos- 
ophy has  ever  exhausted  the  hidden  depths  of  man's 
spirit,  or  fixed  in  crystalline  and  changeless  forms  the 
vital  streams  of  life  and  thought  and  will.  No  litera- 
ture has  ever  exhausted  the  myriad  changes  of  life  and 
passion.     No  theology  has  ever  exhausted  the  material 


218  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

of  revelation.  No  statements  can  ever  dip  up  all  the 
waters  of  these  "  wells  of  salvation,"  for  out  of  Scripture 
flow  "rivers  of  living  water,"  whose  fountain-head  is 
under  the  throne  of  God  and  the  Lamb.  And  therefore 
statements  must  always  be  limited  in  their  value,  being 
unable  to  travel  from  the  season  and  era  that  gave  them 
birth. 

All  statements  must  necessarily  be  imperfect,  not 
only  because  truth  is  greater  than  language,  and  be- 
cause they  must  always  be  the  result  of  existing  times 
and  disputes,  but  also  because  they  must  always  have 
a  special  reference  to  the  individual  mind  that  framed 
them,  and  for  that  reason  cannot  have  a  perfect  uni- 
versal value.  It  is  indeed  the  mai'k  of  a  common 
Nature,  ruled  by  the  same  general  laws,  that  one  man's 
statement  can  and  does  serve  for  the  expression  of 
another  man's  thought.  It  is  also  the  mark  of  each 
man's  individuality  and  difference  from  every  other, 
that  his  own  word  is  more  to  him  than  it  can  be  to 
another,  and  in  using  another  man's  statement  we 
never  exactly  repeat  the  thought  of  him  who  framed 
it ;  nor  will  another  man's  statement  ever  as  perfectly 
express  our  own  mental  state  as  one  that,  with  intelli- 
gence, we  might  make  for  ourselves.  If  we  had  been 
created  as  a  homogeneous  mass  of  humanity,  a  state- 
ment for  one  might  be  a  statement  for  all ;  but  as  we 
are  individualized  and  set  solitary  in  our  personal  being 
by  the  awful  gift  of  a  separate  consciousness,  each  soul 
must  live  and  think  for  itself,  and  itself  alone  can  ex- 
press itself.  Statements  are  a  kind  of  currency.  Some 
great  soul  has  discovered  a  treasure  of  truth,  and  having 
made  it  his  own,  has  issued,  in  his  statement,  a  bank- 


STATEMENTS.  219 

note  to  the  world,  payable  iu  truth  on  presentation. 
But,  what  is  singular,  the  same  note  has  as  many 
values  as  there  are  minds  that  use  it.  When  one 
presents  it  he  receives  for  it  just  as  much,  and  no  more, 
as  he  conceives  it  to  be  worth,  which  may  not  be  half  as 
much  as  in  the  hands  of  the  maker  it  calls  for.  A 
statement  is  a  note  for  a  thousand  dollars;  one  man 
reads  it  for  a  hundred,  another  reads  ten,  another 
rejects  the  ciphers  and  reads  it  one,  and  still  another 
reads  it  as  a  decimal,  and  gets  a  millionth  part  of 
one. 

Thus  individual  differences  render  all  statements 
more  or  less  inapplicable  to  other  souls  than  those  that 
formed  them ;  and  iu  so  far  as  they  are  imposed  upon 
us,  they  tend  to  narrow  and  destroy  that  individuality 
which  distinguishes  us  from  others,  and  iu  which  the 
only  value  of  our  particular  existence  consists.  For  if 
I  am  just  like  some  one  else,  I  am  superfluous.  There 
is  a  reason  for  the  individual  differences  among  men, 
and  a  value  in  them.  Truth  gets  itself  revealed  in  its 
manifoldness  by  having  so  many  different  reflectors.  I 
shall  serve  truth,  not  by  forcing  my  mind  into  the  exact 
form  of  some  other  mind,  but  by  maintaining  the  in- 
tegrity and  difference  of  my  own,  and  letting  truth 
reflect  from  me  the  exact  impression  which  it  makes 
upon  me.  If  I  have  nothing  to  bring  to  the  world  but 
what  others  have  already  brought,  if  my  report  of  life 
is  a  mere  repetition  of  others,  the  world  may  very  well 
dispense  with  me.  If  there  is  any  reason  or  design  in 
your  special  existence  it  must  be  because  there  was  a 
person  wanted  with  just  your  peculiarities,  to  take  just 
the  view  of  truth  that  you  take,  and  to  reflect  that 


220  GOD  IN   NATURE   AND   LIFE. 

view  upon  tlie  world.  Let  every  man  believe  that  lie 
is  a  man,  that  God  made  him  also,  and  that,  born  to 
life  and  immortality,  he  also  has  the  right  to  think, 
and,  if  he  pleases,  to  speak.  But  let  him  not  thinli; 
that  you  and  I  were  made  for  the  mere  purpose  of 
listening  to  him,  least  of  all  to  accept  his  statements 
as  the  law  of  our  thought  and  our  self-manifestation. 
Doubtless  if  the  man  has  anything  to  say  it  will  get 
heard.  But  if  I  drink  the  draught,  the  truth,  and 
return  him  the  cup,  the  statement,  in  which  he  passed 
it  to  nie,  he  need  not  be  angry  that  I  would  not  swallow 
the  cup  too. 

The  poet  is  such  because  he  walks  out  beyond  all 
artificial  boundaries  and  definitions  of  truth,  looks  upon 
the  real  fact  as  it  shows  itself  to  him,  and  makes  his 
report  of  it  as  if  no  eye  had  ever  seen  it  before,  and 
no  statement  ever  had  been  made  about  it.  He  dares 
to  look  for  himself,  and  tell  what  he  sees.  He  connects 
his  words  directly  with  the  thing;  and  it  is  for  this 
reason  that  his  words  have  gone  out  into  all  the  world, 
and  are  seized  upon  by  the  soul  of  the  race.  The 
inventors  of  mathematics  are  poets ;  the  accomplished 
mathematician  may  be  a  machine.  The  discoverers  in 
science  are  poets ;  their  followers  may  be  children. 
Genius  in  any  department  is  simply  this  original 
observation  of  facts,  joined  to  the  boldness  that  will 
express  its  observation  for  itself. 

The  prophet,  rapt  away  from  all  human  forms  of 
truth,  is  shown  the  substance  and  reality  of  things 
invisible,  and  applies  his  words  directly  to  the  truths 
themselves.  His  words  are  pictures  of  such  things 
as  his  soul  sees  in  the  jilorious  vision.     Therefore  his 


STATEMENTS.  221 

words  are  inexhaustible,  and  can  never  fail,  until  we 
for  ourselves,  as  lie  for  himself,  shall  look  upon  those 
truths  aud  give  them  the  form  in  which  they  appear 
to  us.  While  the  truths  themselves  are  beyond  our 
reach,  we  must  depend  upon  the  prophet's  words.  But 
all  truth  is  not  beyond  our  reach.  All  truths  do  not 
rec^uire  inspiration  for  their  discovery  or  prophecy  for 
their  statement ;  and  as  for  all  truths  that  are  acces- 
sible to  us,  it  is  not  our  privilege  only  but  our  duty 
to  visit  them  and  look  upon  them  for  ourselves.  No 
man  can  see  them  for  us,  or  by  any  statements  of  his 
compensate  us  for  the  loss  of  personal  acquaintance. 

Statements  have  their  value,  and  if  tlieir  value  has 
seemed  to  be  questioned  by  the  attempt  to  show  that 
they  are  necessarily  imperfect,  it  is  because  thousands 
have  exaggerated  their  value,  and  they  lie  on  so  many 
minds  as  an  incubus  aud  a  tyranny.  To  how  many 
are  the  current  statements  of  scientific  or  theologic 
truth  finalities  and  dread  authorities  !  How  deep  and 
pitiful  is  the  struggle  of  ten  thousand  waking  souls 
with  these  arbitrary  forms  of  truth,  rising  up  as  frown- 
ing giants  on  each  attempt  at  free,  original  thouglit ! 
This  is  not  because  they  are  not  good,  not  because  they 
are  wrong  or  false,  but  because  though  imperfect  and 
limited  they  have  been  exalted  into  authorities  com- 
manding assent,  rather  than  regarded  as  steps  to  lift 
the  climbing  soul.  Many  a  soul  is  saying  to  tliese 
grim  statements,  "  If  I  may  regard  you  as  helps,  I  will 
be  grateful ;  but  if  I  must  regard  you  as  lords,  and  be 
your  slave,  I  would  rather  be  a  rebel."  And  we,  if  we 
will  not  sustain  them  in  this  declaration,  ought  never 
to  have  opened  the  prison-doors  of  the  race,  ought  never 


222  GOD  IN   NATURE   AND  LIFE. 

to  have  protested  against  Holy  Mother  Church,  ought 
never  to  have  breathed  a  word  about  the  right  of 
private  judgment. 

The  statements  with  which  men  have  thus  crowded 
the  world  have  come  to  be  the  very  material  of 
thought.  Hence  the  great  minds  are  going  back  to 
Plato  and  to  Aristotle  and  the  primal  authors,  the 
material  of  wliose  thoughts  and  statements  was  drawn 
from  original  sources.  Literature  comes  to  be  a  kind 
of  algebra ;  men  and  women  think  and  reason  by 
means  of  these  statements,  rather  than  by  their  own 
observation  of  facts  and  principles.  They  build  sys- 
tems that  are  composed  entirely  of  second-hand  state- 
ments; and  some  of  these  statements,  it  must  be 
confessed,  are  perfect  bricks  for  the  builder,  hard, 
angular,  and  lifeless  as  the  stones  of  the  Pyramids.  I 
have  read  of  a  creature  on  tlie  sea-shore  that  inhabits 
the  rejected  shells  of  mollusks  which  have  died  out  of 
them.  Into  these  the  creature  creeps,  and  though 
they  fit  him  no  better  than  the  giant's  shoes  the 
pygmy,  he  makes  his  home  and  passes  his  life  within 
them.  I  think  human  souls  might  be  found  to  answer 
to  these  creatures,  —  souls  that  house  themselves  and 
all  their  thoughts  in  statements  out  of  which  the  true 
life  died  long  ago.  It  is  too  difficult  to  get  at  the  real 
man  in  these  days.  He  does  not  dare  to  show  himself, 
for  fear  he  shall  be  found  to  disagree  with  the  accepted 
authorities.  He  speaks  as  he  thinks  he  is  expected  to 
speak,  rather  than  as  his  true  experience  and  conscious- 
ness would  prompt  him,  and  often  he  seeks  to  crush 
out  of  his  own  mind  thoughts  which  though  they  im- 
press  him   deeply,  yet  are   not   in   the   fashion.     He 


STATEMENTS.  223 

strives  after  a  total  couformity  of  mind,  distrusts  and 
restrains  his  own  individuality  with  the  impressions 
of  life  and  thought  that  the  world  makes  upon  him, 
and  thus,  perhaps  not  knowing  what  he  does,  is  most 
deeply  injuring  himself. 

It  is  fur  the  mind  of  man  to  look  Nature  and  truth 
in  the  face,  and  not  be  compelled  to  know  them  only 
by  the  pictures  that  others  have  made.  It  is  for  the 
mind  to  look  through  the  statements  of  books  and  men, 
not  merely  into  them.  The  knowing  of  all  the  state- 
ments of  any  truth  that  were  ever  made  is  not  worth 
so  much  as  one  look  beyond  all  these  into  the  face  of 
truth  itself.  We  need  these  statements ;  there  is  no 
education  without  them ;  but  to  them  applies  the 
charge  that  was  given  to  the  tutor  of  a  French  prince, 
"  Make  yourself  useless  as  soon  as  possible." 

May  these  suggestions  help  to  check  the  tendency 
toward  uniformity  of  mind,  by  helping  to  restore  honor 
to  the  individual  soul,  and  confidence  in  all  the  genu- 
ine impressions  of  the  world  and  truth  upon  the  soul 
of  man.  The  right  to  think  involves  more  than  we 
are  always  willing  either  to  take  or  to  grant.  We 
should  indeed  be  ridiculous  if  we  should  assume  an 
entire  independence  of  the  help  of  statements  and 
scorn  the  aid  of  history  and  the  past.  We  must  in- 
deed inform  ourselves  of  the  history  of  truth  and  the 
statements  of  men,  but  what  then  ?  Then,  with  these 
aids,  we  must  go  alone  for  ourselves,  beyond  them  all, 
and  wrestle  with  Proteus  through  all  his  writhings 
till  he  answer  the  question  we  ask.  With  an  earnest, 
loving  heart  we  must  open  ourselves  to  the  impressions 
of  the  universe,  and  believe  in  those  impressions.     The 


224  GOD   IN   NATURE   AND   LIFE. 

terrible  responsibilities  of  personal  existence  are  upon 
us,  but  they  involve  the  kingly  right  of  thinking  for 
ourselves,  and  of  using  all  wisdom  of  men  as  our  ser- 
vant, without  yielding  ourselves  to  it  as  its  slaves.  It 
was  in  an  age  of  formalism  and  slavery  to  tradition 
that  the  Eedeemer  of  men  proclaimed  in  a  command 
the  freedom  of  the  personal  soul,  — "  Call  no  man 
Master  upon  earth." 

There  is  one  condition  imposed  upon  every  soul 
who  seeks  for  truth.  That  condition  is  not  that  he 
must  submit  to  statements,  and  think  in  the  forms 
of  other  minds,  but  that  he  shall  be  honest,  earnest, 
and  fearless.  No  dishonest  soul,  no  partisan  spirit, 
can  hold  communion  with  truth.  ISTo  timid,  indolent 
soul  can  ever  gather  the  rich,  ripe  fruits  of  truth.  To 
the  earnest,  loving  spirit  she  will  show  herself.  The 
soul  in  its  moments  of  worship  and  adoration  reasons 
most  truly.  With  open  eye  and  adoring  heart,  we  are 
furnished  for  investigation,  and  without  them  we  are 
uud  must  be  blind. 


"  Truth  goes  before  the  Muse, 
And  defies  her  skill. 
She  is  rapt,  and  doth  refuse 
To  wait  the  painter's  will. 

"  Star-adoring,  occupied, 
Truth  cannot  bend  her, 
Just  to  please  a  poet's  pride, 
To  parade  her  splendor. 


STATEMENTS.  225 

"  The  bard  must  be,  with  good  intent, 
Not  liis  own,  but  hers  ; 
Must  throw  away  his  pen  and  paint, 
Kneel  with  worshippers. 

"  Then  perchance  a  sunny  day, 

Troiu  the  heaven  of  lire 

His  lost  tools  may  overpay 

And  better  his  desire." 


15 


226  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 


THE  BALANCING  OF  THE  CLOUDS. 

NOTES  OF  A  SERMON. 

Dost  thou  know  the  balanchiffs  of  the  clouds  ? 
Job  xxxvii.  16. 

CLOUDS,  balanced  in  the  upper  air  and  drifting  in 
what  appears  as  empty  space,  seeming  so  heavy 
and  yet  floating  so  lightly,  seemed  to  the  writer  of  this 
book  one  of  the  mysteries  of  Nature,  and  awoke  in  him 
the  sense  of  God's  majesty.  Ignorant  of  any  scientific 
explanation  of  clouds,  he  looked  upon  them  as  we  do  in 
childhood ;  and  probably  there  is  nothing  else  in  all  Na- 
ture which  so  profoundly  affects  children  with  a  sense  of 
God's  majesty  as  the  grandeur  of  great  masses  of  clouds 
in  motion.  They  seem  not  to  belong  to  the  earth,  they 
are  associated  with  our  first  ideas  of  heaven,  and  it  is 
easy  for  the  imagination  to  fancy  that  on  the  further 
side  of  them  God  is  concealed. 

And  after  all  that  Science  can  tell  us  of  clouds,  and 
how  they  are  balanced  in  the  air,  there  yet  remains  the 
deep  and  glorious  mystery  about  them  in  which  all 
things  are  embosomed.  And  after  all  our  scientific 
knowledge  is  gained,  that  man  sees  the  clouds  most 
truly  who  sees  them  as  the  tokens  of  God,  of  His 
power  and  presence  in  the  world,  —  as  children  see 
them,  and  as  the  writer  of  the  text  regarded  them. 


THE  BALANCING  OF  THE  CLOUDS.  227 

We  know  that  the  clouds  are  balanced  by  the  oper- 
ation of  two  opposite  forces.  One  force  impels  them 
upward  from  the  earth,  and  the  other  draws  them  down 
from  above ;  and  when  they  reach  that  elevation  where 
these  two  forces  are  equal,  there  they  are  balanced,  and 
there  is  their  place.  We  call  that  force  which  would 
draw  them  down,  gravity  or  weight ;  and  we  call  that 
force  which  impels  them  upward,  heat.  But  do  we 
know  of  what  gravity  and  heat  are  made,  or  why  they 
should  act  as  they  do  ?  These  are  utter  mysteries,  veils 
which  the  omnipresent  God  has  drawn  over  His  pres- 
ence, that  we  should  not  see  Him  too  soon. 

And  we  know  that  all  worlds  are  balanced  like  the 
clouds.  The  earth  is  balanced  in  space  between  two 
opposite  forces,  one  which  drives  it  away  from  the 
sun,  and  which  if  unrestrained  would  carry  it  beyond 
the  light  and  heat  of  the  sun  into  outer  darkness,  and 
one  which  draws  it  toward  the  sun  ;  and  at  that  dis- 
tance from  the  sun  where  these  two  forces  are  equal, 
there  the  earth  is  balanced,  and  there  it  is  at  rest  in  its 
orbit.  And  God  has  subjected  every  world  to  such  op- 
posite forces,  to  find  their  place  and  rest  where  those 
opposite  forces  balance  each  other.  "  Dost  thou  know 
the  balancings  of  the  clouds  ? "  Do  you  see  that  they 
are  balanced  between  two  forces  acting  in  opposite  ways  ? 
Then  you  know  all  the  balancings  of  the  universe, 
and  you  may  see  how  your  own  soul  is  balanced.  Two 
contrary  forces  hold  the  clouds  in  mid-air,  hold  the 
earth  and  the  planets  in  space  and  place  ;  and  two 
opposite  forces  hold  your  soul  and  mine  in  existence. 

By  one  force,  which  we  call  creation,  God  has 
pushed  us  forth  from  Hhnself,  pushed  us  out  into  a 


228  GOD   IN  NATURE   AND  LIFE. 

separate  existence.  By  this  force  we  have  come  forth 
from  God.  And  the  tendency  of  this  force  is  to  sepa- 
rate us  entirely  from  God,  and  to  carry  us  off  beyond 
all  connection  with  Him,  and  to  bring  upon  ourselves 
the  whole  weight  of  our  own  wants  and  welfare.  But  by 
another  force  we  are  drawn  back  to  God,  —  by  the  force 
of  our  natural  dependence  upon  Him  for  life  and  its 
powers.  And  at  just  that  distance  from  God  at  which 
the  force  by  which  we  came  forth  from  Him  is  equal 
to  the  force  of  our  dependence  upon  Him,  there  the 
soul  is  balanced  and  maintained  in  existence.  If  the 
force  by  which  God  draws  us  toward  Himself,  our 
natural  dependence,  were  taken  away,  then  the  force 
by  which  we  were  put  forth  from  God  w^ould  be  un- 
restrained, and  would  carry  us  off  into  outer  darkness, 
like  wandering  stars,  to  whom  is  reserved  the  black- 
ness of  darkness  forever ;  we  should  cease  to  exist, 
for  want  of  support.  And  if  the  force  by  which  God 
pushes  us  out  from  Himself  were  taken  away,  there 
would  be  nothing  to  keep  us  from  falling  back  into 
God  and  losing  our  existence  in  Him,  becoming  as 
we  were  before  we  were  pushed  forth  from  God  by 
creation ;  as,  if  the  force  which  impels  the  clouds 
upward  were  taken  away,  all  the  clouds  would  fall 
into  the  ocean,  and  lose  their  existence  in  it.  How 
fearfuU}'-  is  the  soul  balanced  between  its  dependence 
upon  God  and  the  power  that  pushes  it  away  from 
God  !  Annihilation  is  on  both  sides  of  it,  and  if  it 
lives  it  is  only  because  God  upholds  and  preserves  it. 
So  much  at  least  is  God  to  us ;  by  so  much  let  us 
reverence  and  fear  before  Him. 

Our  souls  are  balanced  also   between    the   force   of 


TUE  BALANCING  OF  THE  CLOUDS.      229 

our  passions  and  appetites,  and  the  force  of  conscience 
and  the  law  of  God.  Our  appetites,  our  desires  and 
passions,  impel  us  outward  into  action.  They  are 
the  force  by  which  we  are  made  active  beings,  the 
deep  inward  fires  by  which  the  will  is  driven  onward. 
Without  these  passions  and  desires,  we  might  possibly 
lose  ourselves  in  total  inactivity.  But  our  desires 
and  passions  are  a  force  which,  left  to  itself,  would 
push  us  beyond  all  safety,  through  unlimited  indul- 
gence, to  utter  ruin  of  soul  and  body.  With  desire 
and  passion  driving  us  onward  toward  misery  and 
guilt,  the  soul  was  intended  to  be  balanced  and  kept 
in  the  path  of  a  true  and  happy  life  by  the  force  of 
conscience  and  regard  for  God.  And  every  soul  is 
balanced  between  these  two  forces.  It  lives  and 
moves  in  the  path  of  true  life  or  far  from  it,  as  these 
two  forces  are  equal  or  unequal.  The  clouds  are  near 
to  the  earth  or  far  from  it  at  different  times,  according 
as  the  two  forces  that  balance  them  vary  ;  and  what 
life  will  be  to  us  depends  upon  how  the  soul  is  bal- 
anced between  these.  Here  it  is  that  sin  has  so 
deeply  injured  us,  weakening  the  force  of  conscience 
and  regard  for  God,  strengthening  the  force  of  selfish 
passions  and  desires,  and  thus  leaving  the  soul  to  be 
carried  into  conditions  of  guilt  and  misery  and  aliena- 
tion from  God.  In  how  many  souls  is  regard  for  God 
too  weak  to  save  the  soul  from  the  excessive  power  of 
selfish  or  sinful  passion,  which  lead  it  into  guilt  and 
distance  from  God ! 

Again,  the  soul,  with  all  its  immortal  interests,  is  also 
balanced  between  the  force  of  temptation  and  sin,  and 
the  redeeming  grace  of  the  Gospel.  .  .  • 


230  GOD   IX  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 


THE  FIRE  IN   THE  BURNING  BUSH. 

nr^HERE  is  a  beauty  and  propriety  in  this  symbol  of 
■*■  the  divine  presence,  as  well  as  in  the  fact  that  it 
was  granted  to  Moses  when  called  to  his  great  work. 
What  element  of  Nature  could  better  represent  the  God 
of  Nature  than  fire  ?  The  source  of  all  light  and  of  all 
warmth  throughout  the  universe.  He  is  the  great  cen- 
tral, living  fire,  whose  power  and  goodness  enlighten 
and  warm  the  world.  This  emblem  of  purity  and  in- 
tensity may  well  symbolize  the  intensity  of  His  life. 
There  is  nothing  cold,  lukewarm,  indifferent,  in  Him : 
His  power  is  the  intensity  of  power ;  it  is  pure,  un- 
mixed with  weakness  or  imperfection,  unattended  with 
bluster  or  noise,  intense  as  omnipotence,  pure  and  quiet 
as  an  infaut's  sleep.  His  love  is  a  flame  intense  and 
burning,  with  no  coldness,  no  indifference,  and  pure,  with 
no  selfishness,  no  fickleness,  no  shadow  of  turning,  —  an 
intense,  pure,  eternal  fire  in  His  heart,  which  warms 
and  quickens  into  life  all  that  is  good  and  beautiful 
and  blessed  in  His  worlds.  And  His  justice  is  like  a 
fire :  He  is  not  indifferent  to  the  wrongs  that  are  done 
among  His  creatures ;  He  burns  with  strong  resentment 
against  every  injustice.  Yet  His  justice  is  pure,  un- 
tainted with  cruelty,  hardness,  or  liaste :  patient,  long- 
suffering,  but  ineffably  just, —  the  time  will  come  when 


THE  FIRE  IN  THE   BURNING  BUSH.  231 

justice  will  be  done  upon  the  earth,  and  every  man 
shall  receive  the  reward  of  his  deeds. 

And  this  was  an  uuconsumiug  fire.  All  earthly  fire 
is  maintained  by  the  destruction  of  that  which  feeds  it ; 
for  earthly  fire  is  a  created,  dependent  thing,  an  effect 
of  change  in  the  elements  of  created  things.  But  God 
is  uncreated,  independent,  unchangeable.  He  does  not 
decay,  He  does  not  grow  old.  His  life  is  not  main- 
tained by  things  outside  of  itself.  He  lives,  but  He 
does  not  consume,  —  there  is  no  waste  or  loss  of  life  to 
Him.  Living  does  not  exhaust  His  life,  or  diminish 
it.  His  life  is  a  fire  that  burns,  but  does  not  consume  : 
the  burning  bush  that  was  not  consumed  was  a  signifi- 
cant symbol  of  His  being.  He  is  "  a  consuming  fire  " 
only  to  that  which  is  wrong  and  unholy ;  His  own 
life  and  nature  is  not  consumed  or  diminished  by  His 
living.  And  this  is  perfection ;  that  the  life  of  God 
should  be  a  fire,  an  intensely  active,  conscious  life,  and 
yet  should  be  unconsumed  by  living,  never  grow  old 
and  cold,  —  this  is  perfect  existence. 

This  is  the  type  and  model  of  a  perfect  life  in  us. 
The  value  of  life  is  of  course  greatly  in  its  intensity. 
A  life  that  has  no  feeling,  no  lively  interest,  is  scarcely 
a  life  at  all.  We  cannot  compare  a  life  that  is  full 
of  interest,  of  feeling,  of  warm  and  lively  emotion, 
with  one  that  has  almost  no  interest  for  itself,  that  is 
dull  and  low  and  unmoved.  There  is  life  in  all  ani- 
mals, but  there  are  animals  that  naturalists  call  cold- 
blooded, because  they  are  actually  so :  their  life  is 
almost  destitute  of  sensibility,  they  are  incapable  of 
any  but  the  faintest  pleasure,  and  their  existence  is 
close  on  the  borders  of  insensibility  and  death.     We 


232  GOD  IN  NATURE   AND   LIFE. 

cannot  compare  the  value  of  a  life  so  cold  and  sluggish 
with  the  value  of  a  man's  life,  filled  with  innumerable 
interests  and  kindled  and  warmed  by  many  passions. 
There  are  cold-blooded  men  also,  indifferent,  careless, 
unimpressible,  whose  nerves  are  deeply  buried  in  the 
flesh,  and  whose  minds  are  incapable  of  auy  genuine 
enthusiasm.  Their  lives  are  poor  and  valueless  in 
comparison  with  those  of  others  whose  nature  is  more 
largely  endowed  with  sensibility,  interest,  and  enthu- 
siasm. The  blessing  of  being  alive  is  great  or  small  in 
proportion  to  the  degree  in  which  we  are  alive  in  our 
whole  nature.  If  half  our  nature  is  dead,  indifferent, 
inactive,  the  blessing  of  life  is  only  half  of  what  it 
might  be.  To  be  indifferent  is  to  be,  by  so  much, 
dead.  Life  ought  to  be  a  fire.  I  think  when  we  are 
dead  and  entered  into  the  life  to  come,  one  of  our  deep 
experiences  will  be  the  discovery  of  how  little  we  were 
alive  while  we  lived,  —  how  much  death  reigned  over 
us,  even  before  our  last  sickness  seized  us.  Indeed,  we 
may  very  properly  ask  ourselves  whether  w^e  are  alive 
or  not.  Life  may  be  kindled  in  us,  in  the  body,  in  the 
appetites,  in  the  passions ;  but  has  life  reached  our 
souls,  and  taken  up  its  abode  in  our  consciences  ?  Is 
there  any  faith,  any  sense  of  God  and  immortality, 
any  kindling  of  a  genuine  spiritual  nature,  within  us  ? 
Life  ought  to  be  a  fire,  an  intense,  earnest  experience 
of  all  the  great  interests  that  belong  to  us.  It  is  the 
hope  of  heaven  that  there  the  life  that  is  in  us  will 
be  a  flame,  an  intense,  full  interest,  a  fresh,  eternal 
sensibility. 

While  thus  there  are  some  whose  lives  lack  warmth 
and  interest,  there  are  others  whose  life  is  indeed  a  fire, 


THE   FIRE   IN  THE   BURNING  BUSH.  233 

but  a  consuming  fire.  They  are  not  like  the  bush  that 
burned  but  was  not  consumed :  they  are  like  a  burning 
house,  which  feeds  the  fire  that  destroys  it.  The  soul 
burning  with  unholy  excitement  or  passion  consumes 
itself  Sometimes  we  see  a  man  whose  appetite  for 
strong  drink  has  become  as  a  fire  :  the  unnatural  force 
and  excitement  of  his  appetite  is  a  fire  in  which  is  con- 
sumed his  health,  his  strength,  his  honor,  his  usefulness ; 
everything  is  sacrificed  to  this  raging  flame.  So  too 
there  are  men  in  the  world  whose  lives  are  an  intense 
desire  for  property  and  gain.  This  desire  is  the  ruling 
passion,  a  steady,  constant  flame,  but  it  is  a  consuming 
fire.  It  burns  up  all  the  nobler  qualities  of  the  soul. 
It  consumes  a  man's  religious  nature,  it  destroys  his 
care  for  God  and  heaven.  It  sears  the  conscience, 
it  consumes  the  social  affections.  Avarice  strangely 
works  upon  the  character,  to  make  it  narrow  and  in- 
tensely selfish,  coarse  and  unsympathetic.  It  burns 
up  all  that  is  Godlike  and  all  that  is  human,  and 
leaves  only  the  poorest  and  meanest  part  of  the 
nature  unconsumed.  So  also  is  the  passion  of  ambi- 
tion a  consuming  fire.  The  desire  for  distinction  is 
wholly  a  selfish  desire,  a  disease  of  the  mind,  and 
those  in  whom  it  reigns  are  incapable  of  any  really 
generous  action.  Envy  and  jealousy  are  the  insepa- 
rable companions  of  this  passion  for  distinction.  In 
the  fire  of  this  ambition  all  the  better  sentiments 
and  nobler  motives  of  the  soul  are  consumed.  It  is  a 
fire  that  must  be  fed  by  the  constant  sacrifice  of  con- 
science and  religion.  This  unholy  fire  is  found  too 
often  at  the  altar  of  religion,  in  the  very  pulpit  of  the 
church ;    but  it  scorches  and  consumes  the  soul  that 


234  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

cherishes  it  in  any  form.  And  there  is  a  passion  for 
pleasure,  for  society,  for  display,  everywhere  to  be  met 
with,  which  is  a  consuming  fire.  I  tliink  there  is 
hardly  a  sadder  sight  in  all  the  world  than  the  sight  of 
the  multitudes  of  young  men  and  women,  and  the  old 
as  well,  in  our  land  to  whom  the  one  great  interest  of 
living  is  in  social  pleasures,  amusements,  and  display. 
The  passion  for  these  things  is  a  fire  in  which  thousands 
and  thousands  of  youth  in  this  land  are  consumed  and 
destroyed.  If  we  could  see  the  souls  of  these  votaries 
of  fashion  and  pleasure,  we  should  see  them  shrivelling, 
consuming  in  the  fire  of  vain  excitements,  becoming 
less  and  less  earnest  in  all  the  serious  concerns  of  life, 
until  they  were  cast  out  at  last,  ruined  souls,  without 
God  and  without  hope.  Do  not  think  that  these  things 
are  far  off.  Let  us  look  to  it  that  our  souls  and  the 
souls  of  our  children  are  not  the  victims  of  this 
devouring  fire. 

Our  life  is  like  a  fire,  —  a  fire  that  is  either  purifying 
us  or  burning  us  up.  Tlie  true  Christian  life  is  like 
the  fire  in  the  burning  bush ;  it  burns,  but  it  does  not 
consume.  It  is  earnest  and  intense,  but  it  is  not  ex- 
hausting. The  most  intense  worship  of  God  strength- 
ens and  refreshes  us,  and  all  the  influences  of  genu- 
ine piety  are  not  exhausting  but  supporting  to  the  soul. 
Selfish  excitements  are  fed  from  our  own  nature,  and 
therefore  they  exhaust  and  consume  us;  but  the  fires 
of  true  religious  zeal  and  life  are  fed  from  the  life  and 
grace  of  God,  and  therefore  they  do  not  consume,  but 
only  enlighten  and  warm  us. 

To  the  angels  as  they  look  down  from  the  higher 
worlds,  the  sinner,  the  worldling,  looks  like  a  burning 


THE  FIRE  IN  THE  BURNING   BUSH.  235 

soul,  —  a  soul  consuming  itself  in  the  fire  of  its  own 
self-will  and  passion.  The  true  Christian  looks  to 
them  like  the  burning  bush  that  Moses  saw,  —  a  bush 
that  burned  with  fire,  genuine  and  intense,  and  yet 
was  not  consumed. 


236  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 


BEIEFER   EXTEACTS. 
I. 

THE   LESSON   OF   THE   FEOST-FLOWERS. 

IT  was  too  bad  that  you  had  to  go  so  far  to  find 
sympathy  for  your  admiration  of  the  frost-flowers. 
They  are  among  the  things  that  always  impress  me 
with  a  singular  sense  of  the  nearness  of  that  spiritual 
world  of  intelligence  and  will  and  beauty  out  of  wiiich 
this  material  universe  has  come.  Sometimes  as  I  have 
watched  them  grow,  they  seemed  like  something  wdiich 
that  great  secret  Cause  is  now  doing.  I  saw  Him  work- 
ing !  And  indeed,  does  anything  seem  so  close  as  the 
visible  shooting  of  crystals  to  the  great  Cause,  the 
great  spiritual  Worker,  who  ""worketh  all  tilings  ac- 
cording to  the  counsel "  of  His  own  perfect  ideals  ? 
The  partition  is  so  thin  just  there  !  He  is  almost  un- 
veiled. I  once  felt  something  similar  in  watching  the 
opening  of  a  blossom ;  but  in  that  case  so  much  had 
gone  before,  and  the  blossoming  only  completed 
a  process,  that  the  result  was  farther  removed  from 
the  cause.  Yet  it  showed  His  presence,  in  the  way 
of  caring  for  His  little  ones.  Sometimes  these  beau- 
tiful frost-plants  seem  to  me  a  kind  of  delicate  hint 
from  Him,  designedly  not  too  plain,  —  "Don't  mis- 
take !     I  made  the  plants  !     The  universe  is  all  one. 


BRIEFER  EXTRACTS.  237 

the  same  Life  is  in  all,  the  same  Thought  and  Love 
unites  all  in  eternal  harmony."  And  then  I  could 
think  that  that  life  in  crystallization  felt  in  itself  the 
longing,  the  aspiration  toward  the  higher  sphere  of 
living  growth  and  blossom  and  fruit,  and  expressed 
its  longing  and  sent  its  love  in  this  pure  writing,  by 
leaf-and-blossom-like  letters. 

Or  sometimes  they  impress  me  sadly,  as  if  the 
moisture  had  been  exhaled  from  vegetation,  and  re- 
tained the  remembrance,  and  tried  to  restore  the  lost 
life  to  itself  by  these  frozen  imitations.  Poor  things, 
they  find  as  well  as  we  that  memories  do  not  bring 
back  the  dead,  do  not  restore  life,  are  but  white  grave- 
stones over  the  lost !  Memories  are  so  cold !  And  then 
I  could  think  that  possibly  such  hints  as  these  will 
all  be  material  objects  for  us  in  the  world  to  come. 
But  this  is  enough  and  too  much  of  my  fancies. 


IL 

(FROM  A  LETTER.) 

Your  last  letter,  so  friendly  and  welcome,  has  lain 
unanswered  too  long,  and  it  is  wrong,  perhaps,  for  me 
to  take  a  Monday-hour  to  answer  it.  And  yet  perhaps 
no  other  day  is  so  devoted  in  my  mind  to  absent,  dis- 
tant, lost  friends,  as  this.  It  is  my  creed  that  life  is  a 
privilege,  and  the  present  always  the  best.  Alas,  that 
all  creeds  are  so  seldom  held  in  the  heart,  and  exist 
only  as  sentiments  of  the  soul !  I  am  amazed  at  the 
constant,  relentless  dissatisfaction  with  the  present,  at 


238  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

the  eager  haste  to  escape  into  the  past,  at  the  insane 
pulling  on  the  rope  of  time  to  hasten  on  the  future. 
I  know  of  only  one  thing  that  can  keep  the  soul  in 
quiet  occupancy  of  the  day  and  the  life  as  it  passes,  — 
a  satisfied  affection,  a  love  that  has  and  holds  its 
chosen  good.  Eeligion,  though  it  invests  life  with 
value  and  daily  duty  with  dignity,  must  still  want 
such  an  affection  with  which  to  fill  and  sanctify  the 
present.  Alas,  too,  that  as  one  ascends,  what  is  gained 
in  breadth  of  view,  in  multitude  of  objects,  is  so  lost 
in  alienation  from  the  warm  earth-life,  in  a  colder, 
thinner  air,  which,  if  purer,  is  chilling  also  to  the 
emotional  sense  !  There  must  surely  be  some  mighty 
good  awaiting  us,  when  all  this  restlessness  is  necessary 
as  a  preparation.  We  send  our  thoughts  out  so  far 
from  ourselves,  so  far  onward  beyond  the  real  limits  of 
our  life,  and  so  feel  that  we  must  do  it,  to  preserve  us 
from  falling  into  the  self-centred  littleness  of  our  own 
personality !  I  would  gladly  be  a  IMoutaigne,  shut  up 
on  the  third  floor  of  his  round  tower,  resolutely  shut- 
ting his  mind  in  to  the  equally  narrow  circle  of  real 
and  tangible  truths,  looking  on  life  as  a  play,  and 
never  asking  to  go  behind  the  scenes ;  but  Montaigne 
was  as  wretched  as  ever  a  Dante. 

"  Not  enjoyment,  and  not  sorrow, 
Is  our  destined  end  or  way, 
But  to  act  that  each  to-morrow 
Find  us  farther  than  to-day." 

But  the  faith  requisite  for  the  act,  —  who  shall  give 
us  that  ?  You  will  tell  me  life  is  all  encompassed  with 
the  great,  kind  presence  of  the  Father  in  heaven ;  and 
I  should  answer  that  it  is  only  as  the  life,  as  the  soul, 


BRIEFER  EXTRACTS.  239 

that  He  surrounds  me ;  I  see  nothing  to  love,  nothing 
to  trust,  no  intentions  that  regard  me,  no  disposition 
to  do  more  than  out  of  that  placid  depth  to  smile  upon 
me,  as  well  in  my  distress  as  in  my  joy.  I  am  nothing 
to  Him,  He  is  only  the  world-soul  to  me.  If  He  would 
only  move  from  the  still  serenity  of  His  infinite  Being, 
enter  into  my  nature,  take  it,  with  its  limitations, 
wants,  woes,  duties,  loves,  and  griefs,  into  personal 
union  with  Himself,  take  on  its  interests,  become  re- 
sponsible for  its  welfare,  unite  its  experiences  with 
His  own,  proclaim  Himself  man's  God,  God-Man,  —  I 
could  remember  that  fact  with  comfort,  I  could  believe 
in  Him,  I  could  go  on  in  life  with  general  cheerfulness 
and  joy,  and  with  this  remembrance  could  lay  the  turbu- 
lent demon  of  discontent  in  the  hours  of  darkness.  Aud 
so  I  do.  My  dear  friend,  do  you  know  Christ  ?  Pardon 
the  question,  but  do  you  ?  Come  !  I  will  go  with  you 
where  the  trees  wave  and  wliisper  overhead,  where  the 
shaded  depths  are  like  the  depths  of  a  pure-souled 
consciousness,  where  the  waters  lie  so  calm  and  un- 
speakably beautiful  in  the  still,  bright  air,  where  we 
are  laved  and  bathed  in  an  air  that  seems  to  have  come 
from  scenes  of  angel-life  and  love.  Kneel  and  adore ; 
so  will  I.  Melt  and  weep  with  the  over-fulness  of  the 
worship  ;  so  will  I.  Exult  and  keep  silence,  nor  shame 
the  grandeur  of  the  triumph  with  feeble  words  ;  aud  so 
will  I,  —  but  our  souls  are  yet  far,  far  apart.  The  same 
act  of  worship  is  not  one.  What  shall  I  say  ?  To  me 
there  is  a  Jesus  element,  a  personal  element,  a  warm 
human  element.  My  regards  gather  to  and  centre  in 
a  Person;  yours  do  not.  And  therefore  when  you  return, 
it  is  with  the  same  uncertainty  as  before.     God  draws 


240  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND   LIFE. 

you  on,  but  ever  escapes  your  grasp.  Your  heart  lougs 
toward  Him,  but  does  not  rest  upon  Him.  It  is  be- 
cause God  comes  near  to  us  only  in  the  Incarnation, 
and  can  be  our  God  only  when  He  is  so  considered. 
"No  man  conieth  unto  the  Father  but  by  me."  To 
come  to  the  Father,  — that  is  just  what  we  seek  to  do. 
Above  all  things  this  is  the  most  desirable,  but  how 
unattainable  has  it  been !  He  has  come  to  us  in  one 
path,  we  have  gone  to  meet  Him  in  quite  another. 
We  meet  Him  in  our  path  only  after  we  have  met 
Him  in  His  path  first.  Through  Nature  we  can  come 
to  God  only  when  we  have  come  to  Him  first  through 
Calvary. 

"  Well,  God  knows,  His  works  speak  to  me  of  Him," 
you  say.  And  I  say,  "WeU,  God  knows.  And  the 
voice  of  His  works  grows  intelligible  and  distinct  in 
the  teachings  of  His  Son."  They  speak  of  Him,  but 
He  speaks  from  Him,  because  He  is  of  Him.  "  Lo,  this 
is  our  God." 


III. 

(FROM  A  LETTER.) 

Few,  I  think,  can  realize  the  influence  of  a  minister's 
work  upon  the  brain  and  nervous  system.  It  is  lifting 
at  such  an  awful  load,  it  is  dealing  with  realities  so 
overwhelmingly  great  and  important.  Shall  we  put 
down  the  agony  of  the  garden  to  tlie  account  of  weak- 
ness ?  The  cross  of  the  true  Christian  is  tlie  great  and 
terrible  woe  of  mankind.  Some  weeks  ago  I  said  in  a 
letter,  "The  dream  of  my  life  is  rest;  not  rest  from  labor 


BRIEFER  EXTRACTS.  241 

because  I  am  weary,  not  release  from  any  of  all  my 
burdens,  but  God's  rest,  the  rest  of  a  soul  at  one  with 
Hira,  and  tilled  with  His  great  life."  I  think  I  have 
cast  off  all  created  forms  of  truth,  and  tried  to  grasp 
with  literal  touch  of  soul  the  things  themselves.  I 
have  tried  to  realize  God,  and  touch  His  substance ; 
tried  to  make  faith  give  me,  not  truth,  but  substances. 
Of  course  it  is  impossible,  yet  I  cannot  admit  that  it  is 
foolish,  or  anything  else  than  the  very  best  that  I  or 
any  one  else  can  attempt. 


IV. 

(FROM   A  LETTER.) 

When  I  think  of  your  busy  life,  the  importance  of 
the  plans  you  pursue,  I  have  only  one  fear,  —  pardon 
that.  I  know  that  your  real  patrimony  lies  in  the 
world  or  kingdom  of  ideal,  spiritual  truth  and  beauty ; 
and  it  would  be  sad  for  you  to  get  so  far  from  your 
patrimony  in  the  pursuit  of  worldly  ends  as  not  to  be 
able  to  collect  your  rents.  The  outlet  of  your  being  is 
not  expression  (you  are  not  a  poet  or  a  prophet),  but 
action.  But  the  fountain  must  be  kept  full,  its  com- 
munion with  the  great  sea  must  be  constant.  And 
then  sometimes  I  think  of  you  standing  upon  the  high 
precipice  of  the  concrete  world,  looking  off  upon  the 
weltering  sea  of  unembodied  life  and  power  and  love, 
and  with  a  lonely  feeling  saying  to  yourself,  "  It  is  only 
a  sea,  they  are  only  ocean  streams ;  there  is  no  great, 
perfect  counterpart  of  my  personality,  who  meets  me 
in  personal  relations.     I  am,  but  there  is  no  other  I 

16 


242  GOD  IN  NATURE   AND  LIFE. 

AM  to  be  a  personal  friend  in  His  infinite  greatness 
and  goodness  to  me."  And  I  long  to  say  to  you,  "  There 
is  Another ! "  Oh,  could  I  give  you  the  Omnipresent 
Incarnation  which  meets  me  in  my  walks,  the  great 
Personal  Consciousness  that  holds  me  and  all  things  in 
everlasting  remembrance  !  You  said,  when  I  asked  you 
to  define  your  position,  that  you  thought  you  were  re- 
ceptive ;  and  it  has  seemed  to  me  that  you  have  gone 
as  near  to  God  as  you  can  ever  go  by  that  gift.  If  I 
have  ever  gone  farther,  it  has  been  by  an  act,  a  wilful 
act  of  faith.  I  knew  that  God  was,  that  He  must  be 
in  continual  connection  with  me  and  my  life.  "Now, 
what  I  know,  I  will  believe.  He  is  there !  it  shall 
be  so  for  me ! "  and  then,  with  thrills,  it  was  so.  This 
is  indeed  going  out  of  self  and  beyond  self,  but  it  is  to 
find  one's  self  by  losing  one's  self  first.  Did  not  the 
Eedeemer  say  so,  and  did  He  not  also  utter  that  deep 
word,  "  This  is  the  work  of  God,  that  ye  believe  "  ?  I 
know  not  if  you  will  believe  that  I  have  any  advantage 
over  you  in  respect  to  this  recognition  of  God.  As  you 
yourself  have  said,  it  is  little  that  is  permitted  us  to  do 
for  others  in  respect  of  spiritual  gains.  How  awful  is 
that  isolation  of  the  single  soul  in  its  struggles  with 
Proteus,  unless  it  joins  itself  consciously  to  God  !  You 
may  think  of  me  as  getting  slowly  a  larger,  stronger 
hold  upon  the  universe,  and  feeling  daily  more  and 
more  that  life  is  a  privilege,  and  may  be  a  triumph. 
And  so  "  across  the  wastes  "  I  send  you  my  "  All  hail ! " 
and  "  God  be  with  you  ! " 


BRIEFER  EXTRACTS.  243 


THE  LIFE  ETERNAL. 

When  the  growth  of  the  soul  has  carried  it  beyond 
reliance  upon  earthly  fortunes  and  conditions  for  its 
happiness,  to  rest  itself  in  God,  and  when  it  has  come 
to  recognize  the  spiritual  in  the  natural,  so  as  to  feel 
a  life,  a  peace,  a  soul,  a  love,  in  the  great  Nature  that 
surrounds  it,  then  the  soul  has  entered  eternity,  and 
this  life  becomes  the  eternal  life  for  it,  and  the  difference 
between  this  life  and  the  next  is  only  one  of  degree. 

Two  great  facts  characterize  the  "  life  everlastinof." 
One  of  them  is  the  consciousness  of  God  as  the  Pres- 
ence in  which  we  live,  the  infinite  Love  from  which  a 
constant  warmth  of  joy  is  imparted  to  us.  Whoever 
has  attained  the  reality  of  that  consciousness,  though 
in  an  imperfect  degree  and  by  occasional  experiences, 
has  entered  the  eternal  w^orld,  and  lived  in  that  ex- 
perience the  eternal  life.  Could  the  cares  and  claims 
of  the  worldly  life  be  carried  without  disturbing  that 
consciousness  of  Him,  the  soul  would  thus  be  in  eter- 
nity in  the  same  sense  as  the  dead  are,  as  we  all  shall 
be  wlien  with  spiritual  bodies  we  find  earthly  cares  no 
longer  interfering  as  they  do  now.  In  our  dying,  the 
material  world  fades  away  until  it  has  vanished.  We 
see  no  more  the  sky  above  us,  the  earth  around  us,  the 
forms  of  men  or  things,  —  yet  we  live.  What  takes 
the  place  of  this  vanished  world  of  material  things  ? 
It  is  God.  We  go  to  Him.  He  is  the  other  world, 
the  spirit's  world.  "  I  saw  no  temple  therein ;  and 
they  need  not  tlie  light  of  the  sun  or  of  the  moon,  for 
the  Lord  is  the  light,  and  the  temple  thereof."     The 


244  GOD  EN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

consciousness  of  God  that  we  gain  here  is  the  same 
feeling  that  we  shall  have  there.  Nor  can  it  be  con- 
ceived that  any  sudden  greatening  of  that  conscious- 
ness can  take  place  by  the  mere  act  of  dying.  It 
depends  upon  the  spiritual  capacity  of  the  soul,  and 
this  depends  upon  the  degree  of  its  growth:  so  that 
the  innermost  life  of  the  soul  undergoes  but  a  slight 
change  in  passing  through  to  the  life  beyond.  The 
life  of  the  soul  is  simply  continued. 

The  other  fact  that  marks  the  character  of  the  life  to 
come  is  the  predominance  of  the  spiritual  over  the  ma- 
terial, —  such  a  predominance  that  in  all  we  look  upon 
we  see  its  spiritual  significance,  its  spiritual  expression. 
The  spiritual  world  lies  like  an  atmosphere  close  upon 
the  material.  A  tree,  a  flower,  a  rock,  a  lake,  are  these 
to  the  senses  only;  but  to  the  seeing  spirit  they  are 
spiritual  beauties  and  truths  and  meanings.  We  look 
upon  the  wide  landscape  of  hill  and  valley,  and  sky 
and  green,  and  over  it  and  in  it,  embracing  and  holding 
it  all,  is  a  spiritual  beauty  and  significance  and  life. 
God  broods  in  that  quiet  loveliness.  His  peace  is  on 
it,  love  and  rest  embrace  it.  Often  we  stand  on  the 
confines  of  this  spiritual  world  and  cannot  enter.  A 
strange,  self-pitying  sadness  seizes  our  hearts.  We 
feel  how  blessed  it  would  be  to  sway  and  float  and  rest 
in  that  great  beauty  and  peace,  but  we  cannot.  Sadly 
as  a  banished  angel  might  look  back  on  the  liills  of 
heaven  we  look  on  these.  That  great  life  is  so  near, 
and  yet  not  for  us.  But  there  are  souls  who  do  enter 
it,  whom  this  great  spiritual  Nature  takes  to  its  heart 
and  floods  with  its  life,  —  souls  that  are  identified  with 
it,  and  blessed  with  its   blessedness.     These  souls  in 


BRIEFER  EXTRACTS.  245 

such  moments  are  in  eternity,  living  the  very  life  of 
heaven.  They  are  in  true  conscious  relations  with  the 
whole  universe.  Every  true  and  accepted  soul  is  now 
in  all  its  eternal  relations,  —  to  God,  to  the  universe, 
to  life ;  is  not  still  trying  to  enter  these,  but  has 
entered  them.  The  only  imperfections  of  the  soul's 
eternal  life  here  arise  from  the  presence  of  earthly 
necessities  mingling  and  claiming  so  much  of  our  care 
and  thought,  and  from  the  incomplete  growth  of  the 
soul.  It  is  very  good  for  the  soul  to  accept  this 
thought;  I  find  no  more  strength  and  courage  in  any 
other.  It  is  good  to  say  to  ourselves,  "  This  is  eter- 
nity ;  I  am  now  a  citizen  of  the  universe  :  this  is 
eternal  life  that  I  am  living.  The  ages  are  mine,  the 
worlds  are  mine.  I  shall  live  forever ;  I  have  no 
need  to  fret  with  anxiety  or  hurry."  It  is,  after  all, 
the  pressure  of  time  on  life  that  disturbs  our  rest 
and  destroys  our  peace.  To  remember  that  this  is 
eternity,  and  we  are  living  now  in  our  eternal  rela- 
tions, gives  to  life  breadth  and  room  and  leisure.  And 
the  soul  for  whom  this  is  written  holds  in  its  power 
the  best  earthly  conditions  for  realizing  this  great 
rest.  May  its  sweetness  and  power  infold  that  soul 
in  a  great  peace ! 


FROM  A  RECORD   OF  EXPEEIE^^CES  IN  THE    "NORTH 
WOODS,"   OF  NEW  YORK. 

The  hills  are  bold,  primary  hills,  rounded  but  rough 
in  outline,  and  wooded  to  the  tops ;  and  oh,  the  beauti- 
ful white  lakes,  lying  in  such  dense  forests  and  foliage ! 


246  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

At  each  end  of  the  mountain  is  a  little  long,  narrow 
pond,  very  singular  in  effect,  so  deeply  hid  between  the 
squeezing  hills,  like  water  held  in  two  hands.  The 
finest  sport  we  found  fishing  we  had  in  a  small  lake, 
deeply  hid  in  a  perfectly  rocky  basin,  the  rocks  on  three 
sides  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  high.  I  tried  to  sketch 
it,  but  the  rain  washed  my  paper  to  pieces.  It  is  our 
own  virgin  lake.  Fish  were  never  taken  from  it  before. 
Even  the  guides  suppose  there  are  none  in  it.  There 
was  something  strange  and  almost  painful  in  the  depth 
and  purity  of  the  water.  It  was  too  pure  to  yield  the 
sense  of  adequate  support  to  our  boat.  We  preserve 
our  knowledge  of  this  lake  a  masonic  secret,  which  it 
is  not  hard  to  do.  You  must  know  that  this  vast  forest 
is  not  all  known  to  any  living  man.  There  are  portions 
of  which  the  deer  and  bear,  the  wolf  and  panther,  alone 
know.  It  is  wonderful,  this  sublime,  vast,  glorious 
forest  in  the  midst  of  us.  If  it  were  ten  times  greater 
it  would  not  be  practically  increased,  for  it  is  too  great 
for  any  one  man's  knowledge  as  it  is.  We  intended  to 
visit  our  virgin  again,  but  a  trip  in  another  direction 
prevented. 

Sometimes  we  amused  ourselves  calling  the  owls  in 
the  night,  and  became  so  owlish-wise  that  at  last  one 
came  at  our  call,  and  alighting  on  a  tree  near  us  sent 
forth  the  most  completely  defiant  and  insolent  "hoot" 
that  I  ever  heard.  We  insulted  and  provoked  him  in 
every  possible  manner,  but  he  evidently  thought  us  too 
well  "  brought  up  in  the  woods "  for  him  to  attack. 
Their  hooting  is  a  grand  defiant  tone  in  the  deep 
night,  and  they  are  the  "  kings  of  the  cannibal  islands." 
H.  came  upon  one  that  had  killed  another  in  battle. 


BRIEFER   EXTRACTS.  247 

and  was  devouring  its  slaughtered  foe.  Afterward  he 
put  his  hand  upon  a  great  gray  one,  sitting  in  the  dark 
on  the  bow  of  the  boat,  whither  he  had  been  attracted  by 
the  deer  we  had  killed  that  evening.  The  kingly  raven 
had  nests  near  our  camp ;  the  loons  laughed  and  cried 
their  long,  echoing,  plaintive  cry  upon  the  lakes.  The 
gulls  fished  in  our  waters.  Miss  Linnet  raised  her 
family  by  our  paths,  the  red-throated  humming-bird  was 
busy  and  noisy  around,  the  sambucus  blossomed  in  our 
front  yard.  But  our  favorites  were  the  little  crossbills, 
which  by  the  dozen  chattered  socially  round  our  door, 
coming  into  the  camp,  and  sitting  on  the  big  chair  in 
front  of  the  door,  even  when  one  of  us  was  in  it.  But, 
"  speaking  of  birds,"  you  must  know  the  white-throated 
sparrow;  and  if  you  have  heard  his  ah-te-te-teeee,"  it 
will  ring  in  your  ears  now.  We  came  frequently  upon 
broods  of  young  ducks.  Once  half  a  dozen  of  the  family 
were  riding  nicely  on  the  old  mamma's  back ;  but  when 
the  old  one  was  alarmed,  and  had  hid  her  duckies,  it 
was  wonderful  how  lame  she  was, — oh  dear,  how  lame ! 
And  once  we  came  upon  a  brood  of  young  partridges. 
That  old  one  was  cunning.  She  walked  off  so  slow  and 
still,  but  contriving  so  evidently  to  keep  in  plain  sight, 
wishing  us  to  think  that  she  was  trying  to  hide  from 
us,  while  she  was  really  anxious  to  have  us  see  her  and 
follow  her  away  from  her  darlings.  The  eagles  flew  off 
at  our  approach  with  a  strong,  business-like  working  of 
the  sails.  Nothing  but  business  in  their  style  of  flying. 
But  the  graceful  floating  and  very  plaintive  high-keyed 
note  of  the  fish-hawk  comported  ill  with  his  fishy 
character  and  pursuits.  "We  had  red  and  ground 
sq^uirrels,  mink-fishers,  rabbits,  and   otter,  for  animals. 


248  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

And  once  we  pursued  a  red  squirrel  wliicli  was  swim- 
ming across  the  lake,  and  being  headed  off  he  lost 
courage,  and  when  I  put  out  the  paddle  he  ran  up  it 
until  he  saw  us  so  near,  and  leaped  into  the  water ;  but 
immediately  after  H.  gave  him  an  oar,  and  he  ran  into 
the  boat,  went  a-fishing  with  us,  and  on  landing  took 
very  kiudly  to  our  trees. 

On  reaching  the  balsam  woods  my  eyes  suddeuly 
opened  wide.  Such  mosses,  such  luxuriance  of  mosses, 
such  lycopodiums !  Such  shades,  such  alcoves  and 
bowers !  Such  places  for  prayer,  for  reading,  for  the 
deep,  sweet  luxury  of  Nirvana !  Nature's  very  bosom  ! 
You  forbade  me  ever  to  go  to  your  Green  Mountain 
haunts.  I  have  my  revenge  now.  You  shall  never  go 
to  Brown's  Tract  till  I  am  ready  to  go  with  you,  but  you 
shall  go.  In  that  "  other  world  "  I  will  drag  you  away 
from  your  "  great  folks  ; "  I  will  make  you  tramp  with  me 
through  these  deep  silences  and  spiritual  shadows ;  you 
shall  follow  me  over  those  wondrous  mosses,  and  admire 
through  my  eyes  the  glory  of  that  silent  world.  .  .  . 
The  wondrous  luxuriance  of  the  mosses  on  the  fallen 
timbers  reminded  me  of  you,  but  I  brought  away  for 
you  only  this  poor  young  polypodium.  He  was  grow- 
ing in  such  luxuriant  company  on  an  enormous  rock, 
a  perfect  wilderness  of  young  fronds.  He  was  fore- 
ordained to  go  to  you,  and  he  accepts  his  destiny.  He 
has  closed  his  fingers  in  true  baby  style.  Give  him 
welcome  for  the  sake  of  that  great  mystery  which  allies 
all  these  youngest  children  of  God  to  yourself. 

We  fixed  camp  (after  entering  the  woods)  by  build- 
ing a  bright  fire  in  the  wide  fireplace,  and  making  a 
bed  of  hemlock,  and  unpacking  our  packs.     We  were 


BRIEFER  EXTRACTS.  249 

happy  and  noisy  as  big  boys.  We  found  that  dignity 
was  a  civilized  institution,  and  turned  it  for  the  time  out 
of  camp.  We  ate  our  supper  with  an  intensity  of  enjoy- 
ment that  was  really  ludicrous.  The  first  effect  of  such 
an  absolute  freedom  is  a  revolt  to  the  inherent  latent 
savagery  of  our  nature.  The  animal  man,  the  king  of 
beasts,  the  tyrant  of  Nature,  starts  up  to  claim  his  rights 
when  he  finds  himself  in  his  native  paradise  of  woods 
again.  And  then,  too,  Nature's  purifying  process  in- 
volves an  emesis  of  all  the  corruptions  of  civilization  ; 
these  have  to  come  forth.  I  am  afraid  that  P.  swore, 
and  was  even  a  little  vulgar  in  his  wit,  and  that  I  suf- 
fered him,  without  any  adequate  rebuke.  But  I  noticed 
that  every  succeeding  day  we  grew  more  serious,  refined, 
silent,  and  reflective. 

My  life  was,  as  it  should  have  been,  mostly  a  mere 
physical  life,  of  rest  and  freedom.  I  dropped  my  bur- 
dens, left  my  thinking,  and  was  just  swallowed  up  in 
the  material  Nature  around  me.  I  went  one  quiet,  bright 
Sunday  morning,  before  the  others  were  awake,  to  one 
of  the  most  silent  and  secluded  places  in  the  woods; 
probably  no  human  being  had  ever  been  there  before. 
The  silence,  the  wildness,  the  vast  life  of  the  forest,  and 
the  equally  vast  decay  out  of  which  all  that  life  grew, 
the  depth  of  the  shadows,  all  overpowered  me  for  the 
moment.  I  was  too  awed  and  impressed  to  pray ;  and 
when  I  did,  it  was  just  to  claim  and  feel  myself  one  of 
the  creatures  of  God,  buried  in  His  great  Nature,  like 
the  animals  and  birds  and  insects  around  me.  And  the 
sense  of  being  a  part  of  this  Nature,  and  with  all  other 
parts  related  to  God,  gave  me  such  a  home  in  existence, 
in  the  world,  and  in  God,  as  I  never  felt  before.     The 


250  GOD  IN  NATURE  AND  LIFE. 

woods  demand  the  essential  manliness  that  is  in  a  man; 
so  much  of  common  life  falls  away  from  him  in  such  re- 
lations to  Nature  and  life.  It  seems  to  be  man's  true 
calling  to  find  out  and  take  his  "  living "  directly  from 
original  sources,  and  to  give  himself  without  scruple  or 
reserve  to  the  material  Nature  in  him  and  around  him. 
He  dreads  the  return  to  the  dependence  and  obligations 
of  civilized  society.  The  refinement  I  should  gather 
from  such  a  life  would  seem  to  me  more  thorough,  more 
true,  because  attained  less  through  suppression  of  evil 
than  through  a  healthy  superiority  to  evil  desires  and 
dispositions.  The  real  wants  of  life  alone  are  felt ; 
and  so  many  of  our  sins  originate  from  the  artificially 
created  needs  of  society. 


A    BOOK    OF    PRAYERS. 


1865. 

To  J.  a 

The  Lord  bless  thee,  and  keep  thee  : 

The  Lord  make  His  face  to  shine  upon  thee,  and  be  gracious  unto 

thee  : 
The  Lord  lift  up  His  countenance  upon  thee,  and  give  thee  peace. 


TE    DEUM. 

"\^7E  praise  Thee,  0  God:  we  acknowledge  Thee  to 
^^       be  the  Lord. 

All  the  earth  doth  worship  Thee,  the  Father  ever- 
lasting. 

To  Thee  all  angels  cry  aloud :  the  heavens,  and  all  the 
powers  therein. 

To  Thee  cherubim  and  seraphim  continually  do  cry, 

Holy,  holy,  holy,  Lord  God  of  Sabaoth  : 

Heaven  and  earth  are  full  of  the  majesty  of  Thy  glory. 

The  glorious  company  of  the  apostles  praise  Thee. 

The  goodly  fellowship  of  the  prophets  praise  Thee. 

The  noble  army  of  the  martyrs  praise  Thee. 

The  holy  Church  thoughout  all  the  world  doth  ac- 
knowledge Thee, 

The  Father  of  an  infinite  majesty ; 

Thine  adorable,  true,  and  only  Son ; 

Also  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  Comforter. 

Thou  art  the  King  of  Glory,  0  Christ. 

Thou  art  the  everlasting  Son  of  the  Father. 

"When  Thou  tookest  upon  Thee  to  deliver  man,  Thou 
didst  humble  Thyself  to  be  born  of  a  Virgin. 

When  Thou  hadst  overcome  the  sharpness  of  death. 
Thou  didst  open  the  kingdom  of  heaven  to  all 
believers. 


254  A  BOOK  OF  PRAYERS. 

Thou  sittest  at  the  right  hand  of  God,  in  the  glory  of 
the  Father. 

We  believe  that  Thou  shalt  come  to  be  our  Judge. 

We  pray  thee,  therefore,  help  Thy  servants,  whom  Thou 
hast  redeemed  with  Thy  precious  blood. 

Make  them  to  be  numbered  with  Thy  saints,  in  glory 
everlasting. 

0  Lord,  save  Thy  people,  and  bless  Thine  heritage. 

Govern  them  also,  and  lift  them  up  forever. 

Day  by  day  we  magnify  Thee, 

And  we  worship  Thy  name  ever,  world  without  end. 

Vouchsafe,  0  Lord,  to  keep  us  this  day  without  sin. 

0  Lord,  have  mercy  upon  us,  have  mercy  upon  us. 

0  Lord,  let  Thy  mercy  be  upon  us,  as  our  trust  is  in 
Thee. 

0  Lord,  in  Thee  have  I  trusted :  let  me  never  be  con- 
founded. 


PEAYER  FOE   SPIEITUAL   LIFE. 

/^  LOED,  my  Heavenly  Father  !  all  my  life  is  before 
Thee,  and  all  its  sources  are  in  Thee.  Thou  givest 
me  life,  and  to  know  Thee  is  yet  another  and  a  higher 
life.  I  do  thank  Thee,  O  God,  for  my  life  in  nature 
and  the  world,  but  it  is  only  a  life  in  death  if  my 
spirit  is  not  conscious  of  Thee,  if  I  have  no  spiritual 
life.  O  God,  I  come  to  Thee  for  life.  I  long  to  be 
conscious  of  the  spiritual  realities.  I  pray  Thee  for 
sensibility  to  feel  Thy  tokens  in  my  life.  0  God,  let 
me  not  by  unconsciousness  be  cut  off  from  Thee  and 


A  BOOK  OF  PRAYERS.  255 

the  spiritual  world.  I  beseech  Thee,  quicken  into  life 
every  susceptibility  of  my  soul  for  the  appreliension  of 
Thee  ;  and  oh,  impress  every  such  susceptibility  with 
deep  experiences  of  Thy  presence  and  character,  O 
God,  grant  me  faith  to  accept  as  realities  the  truths  of 
Thy  Word,  that  so  I  may  possess  "  the  substance  of 
things  hoped  for."  Save  me,  0  Lord,  from  a  barren 
belief  which  does  not  touch  the  heart.  0  God,  every- 
thing in  the  world  influences  me  to  justify  or  excuse 
myself.  I  beseech  Thee  for  a  just  and  sufiicient  sense 
of  my  imperfections  and  sins.  I  would  not  be  "dead 
in  sin,"  or  call  my  sins  by  softer  names  than  Thou  wilt 
use  at  last.  Oh,  let  not  stupidity  of  soul  exclude 
me  from  the  experiences  of  a  spiritual  life.  Some- 
thing in  my  soul,  0  Lord,  ever  seeks  Thee,  is  ever 
turning  to  Thee.  I  beseech  Thee,  come  and  fill  this 
emptiness  which  cries  out  for  Thee.  Oh,  make  my 
soul's  apprehension  of  Thee  clearer  and  more  constant, 
that  I  may  always  be  able  to  say  with  my  Saviour, 
"  I  am  not  alone,  for  the  Father  is  with  me." 

0  God,  all  things  are  in  Thee,  and  by  Thee  all 
things  subsist.  Oh,  help  me  to  see  all  things,  all 
persons,  all  occurrences,  in  Thee.  I  have  so  long 
lived  a  shallow  life,  seeing  only  the  material  surfaces 
of  things  :  and  so  many  around  me  appear  never  to 
see  more  in  life  and  death  thati  just  the  hard,  cold 
facts  as  they  befall :  alas !  0  Lord,  I  am  often  in 
danger  of  feeling  that  it  is  enthusiasm  to  look  for 
more  or  better  in  life  than  just  its  material  blessings 
and  common  social  enjoyments.  0  God,  save  me  from 
such  infidelity  and  atheism.  Oh,  give  me  strong  con- 
victions of  religious  truths,  and  lively  impressions  of 


256  A  BOOK  OF  PRAYERS. 

them.  Help  me  to  be  rooted  in  the  spiritual  world, 
that  my  deeds  may  grow  out  of  its  holiness,  and  my 
life  may  be  fashioned  and  beautified  by  its  purity.  Oh, 
let  my  outward  life  repose  on  a  real  and  profound 
spiritual  life  within  me,  as  the  sweet  white  lily  grows 
out  of  and  reposes  on  the  waters,  in  which  it  is 
"fixed  but  floating."  O  God,  let  not  my  life  again 
become  the  empty  shell  of  life  which  it  is  when  Thou 
art  gone  out  of  it.  Oh,  take  my  soul  into  communion 
with  Thee,  that  so  I  may  live  and  move  in  the  endless 
bliss  of  being  in  Thy  presence  and  Thy  love  :  for  the 
sake  of  Christ  our  Saviour.     Amen. 


PEAYEK   TO   ANTICIPATE   THE   DAY. 

r\  LOED,  my  Heavenly  Father  !  Thou  hast  wakened 
^"^  me  to  meet  this  new  day,  and  already  its  duties 
and  opportunities  lay  their  claims  upon  my  heart. 
0  God,  Thou  seest  how  weak  and  incompetent  I  am, 
without  Thy  help,  for  what  this  day  requires  of  me. 
Oh,  help  me  to  meet  it  with  a  strength  equal  to  its 
demands.  Help  me,  0  Lord,  to  be  Thy  servant,  —  to 
work  wdth  Thee,  in  Thine  employ.  Help  me  to  live 
and  go  in  the  current  of  Thy  will  and  providence. 

0  Lord,  prepossess  my  spirit,  and  draw  my  thoughts 
and  affections  unto  Thyself.  Guide  my  way  through 
the  hours  and  employments  of  this  day,  and  save  me 
from  the  evil  into  which  without  Thy  keeping  I  shall 
surely  fall :  for  the  sake  of  Christ  our  Saviour.     Amen. 


A  BOOK  OF  PRAYERS.  257 


A  PRAYER  FOR  MORNING  USE. 

r\  LORD,  my  Heavenly  Father !  I  pray  Thee,  look 
^"^  upon  me  in  Thy  fatherly  love.  Oh,  let  me  now 
come  into  Thy  notice.  I  am  before  Thee  in  the  midst 
of  a  life  whose  demands  and  changes  continually  ex- 
haust my  powers,  and  only  in  what  Thou  dost  impart 
can  my  strength  be  renewed.  There  are  many  ways 
open  to  me,  and  only  one  the  true  and  right  way.  Oh, 
let  not  my  soul  mistake  its  true  path  of  life  this  day. 
Night  and  sleep  have  set  me  apart  and  free  from  the 
past,  and  brought  me  to  this  opportunity  to  begin  my  life 
anew.  Above  all  things,  I  beseech  Thee,  renew  a  right 
spirit  within  me.  Help  me  to  put  away  every  low  aim, 
every  selfish,  careless  spirit,  from  my  heart,  and  in  the 
beauty  of  sincerity  to  serve  Thy  Holy  Will  this  day. 

0  Lord,  Thou  hast  made  all  life  sacred  to  me,  by 
Thyself  prearranging  its  conditions,  appointing  its  du- 
ties, and  observing  for  judgment  their  performance, — 
by  measuring  its  trials,  and  accompanying  me  by  Thy 
presence  into  all  places.  I  would  take  up  my  life  as  a 
sacred  thing,  despising  none  of  its  necessary  employ- 
ments, nor  doing  carelessly  any  of  its  work. 

O  Lord,  uphold  my  spirit  in  the  steady  preference  of 
whatsoever  things  are  pure  and  most  acceptable  to 
Thee.  0  most  holy  Father,  I  dread  to  contract  pollu- 
tion and  defilement  of  soul  in  dealing  with  temptation 
and  sin.  Oh,  keep  me  pure  and  clean  when  I  walk 
through  places  haunted  by  the  evil  spirits  of  temp- 
tation.     Let    me   not  yield   to   the  general   example, 

17 


258  A  BOOK  OF  PRAYERS. 

however  general  it  may  be,  of  carelessness  and  frivolity 
of  living. 

0  God,  help  me  to  feel  the  spiritual  facts  and 
presences  which  surround  me  even  in  this  life,  and 
in  every  place.  Open  mine  eyes  to  see  how  all  the 
mountains  are  "  full  of  Thy  chariots  and  horsemen," 
how  all  places  are  occupied  by  Thy  presence. 

In  the  quiet  of  home,  in  the  intercourse  of  society, 
oh,  may  my  spirit  be  filled  with  peaceful  and  contented 
thoughts  of  Thy  goodness,  with  genuine  charity  for  all 
the  souls  around  me  ;  that  the  unavoidable  and  uncon- 
scious influences  of  my  life  may  be  pure  and  helpful. 

1  know  not  what  the  day  may  bring  to  me.  I  know 
that  all  things  are  possible.  O  Lord,  guide  me  by  Thy 
gracious  power  and  Spirit,  that  so  my  ways  may  please 
Thee,  while  they  lead  me  toward  the  rest  -which  re- 
maineth  for  Thy  people :  through  our  Lord  and 
Saviour,  Jesus  Christ.     Amen. 


A  PRAYER  FROM  THE  GREEK  SERVICE. 

r\  HEAVENLY  KING,  Comforter,  Spirit  of  Truth, 
^^^  in  all  places  present,  in  whom  is  all  fulness,  the 
Treasury  of  all  good  gifts,  and  the  Fountain  of  our  life ! 
come  and  make  Thy  tabernacle  with  me,  cleanse  me 
from  all  wickedness,  and  replenish  my  soul  with  all 
goodness. 

All-holy  triune  God,  be  merciful  to  me.  Lord,  be 
propitious  to  my  sinfulness.  0  God,  pardon  my  trans- 
gressions. 


A  BOOK  OF  PRAYERS.  259 

O  Holy  One,  be  Thou  my  Shepherd,  and  cleanse  me 
from  all  my  imperfections,  for  Thy  Name's  sake. 

Lord,  have  mercy !  Lord,  have  mercy !  Lord,  have 
mercy !    Amen, 


A  LESSON   OF  EVENING  WOESHIP. 

TT  is  good  to  give  thanks  unto  the  Lord,  to  sing 
praises  unto  Thy  name,  O  Most  High. 

To  show  forth  Thy  loving-kindness  every  morning,  and 
Thy  faithfulness  every  night. 

O  God,  Thou  art  my  God;  my  mouth  shall  praise 
Thee  with  joyful  lips, 

While  I  meditate  on  Thee  in  the  night-watches. 

Because  Thou  hast  been  my  help,  therefore  in  the 
shadow  of  Thy  wings  will  I  rejoice. 

Day  unto  day  uttereth  speech,  and  night  unto  night 
showcth  knowledge.  Lord,  make  me  to  know  mine  end, 
and  tJie  measure  of  my  days,  what  it  is, 

That  I  may  know  how  frail  I  am.  Behold,  Thou 
hast  made  my  days  as  a  handbreadth,  and  my  age  is 
as  nothing  before  Thee. 

But  Thou  art  the  same,  and  TJiy  years  have  no  end. 
From  everlasting  to  everlasting  Thou  art  God. 

Where  is  my  God,  who  giveth  songs  in  the  night  ? 
O  Lord,  hear.     0  Lord,  forgive. 

According  to  the  multitude  of  Thy  tender  mercies,  Not 
out  my  transgressions. 

Wash  me  thoroughly  from  mine  iniquities,  and 
cleanse  me  from  my  sin. 


260  A  BOOK  OF  PRAYERS. 

Deliver  me,  0  Lord,  from  mine  enemies;  I  Jlee  unto 
Thee  to  hide  me. 

Oh,  keep  my  soul,  and  deliver  me ;  let  me  not  be 
ashamed,  for  I  put  my  trust  in  Thee. 

/  will  lay  me  down  in  'peace  and  sleep,  for  TJiou,  Lord, 
makest  me  to  dwell  in  safety. 

He  that  keepeth  thee  will  not  slumber ;  behold.  He 
that  keepeth  Israel  shall  neither  slumber  nor  sleep. 

The  Lord  is  thy  keeper  ;  the  Lord  is  thy  shade  on  thy 
right  hand. 

The  Lord  shall  preserve  thee  from  all  evil,  He  shall 
preserve  thy  soul. 

The  Lord  shall  preserve  thy  going  out  and  thy  com- 
ing in  from  this  time  forth  and  even  for  evermore. 

Glory  be  to  the  Father,  and  to  the  Son,  and  to  the  Holy 
Ghost, 

As  it  ivas  in  the  heginning,  is  now,  and  ever  shall  he, 
world  without  end.    Amen. 


EVENING   PEAYEE. 

(From  Jeremy  Taj'lor.) 

/^^  LOED  GOD,  who  art  the  light  and  splendor  of 
^-^^  souls,  in  the  brightness  of  Thy  countenance  is 
eternal  day,  which  knows  no  night.  In  Thine  arms 
and  in  Thy  protection  is  all  tranquillity,  quietness,  and 
everlasting  repose.  While  the  darkness  covers  the  face 
of  the  earth,  receive,  O  Lord,  my  body  and  soul  into 
Thy  custody ;  let  not  the  spirits  of  darkness  come  near 
my  dwelling,  neither  suffer  my  fancy  to  be  abused  with 
the  visions  of  the  night. 


A  BOOK  OF  PKAYERS.  261 

Pardon  and  forgive,  0  Lord,  all  the  sins  and  offences 
of  my  youth,  the  errors  of  my  understanding,  the  in- 
ordination  of  my  affections,  the  irregularities  of  all 
mine  actions,  and  particularly  of  whatsoever  I  have 
transgressed  this  day,  in  thought  or  word  or  deed. 
Lord,  let  not  Thy  wrath  arise;  for  though  I  have 
deserved  the  extremest  pressure  of  Thine  indignation, 
yet  remember  my  infirmity,  and  how  Thou  has  sent 
Thy  Son  to  reveal  Thine  infinite  mercies  to  us,  and 
convey  pardon  and  salvation  to  the  penitent. 

I  beseech  Thee  also  to  accept  the  heartiest  devotion 
and  humblest  acknowledgment  of  a  thankful  heart  for 
Thy  blessings,  and  Tiiy  preservation  of  me  this  day. 
Lord,  let  Thy  grace  be  so  present  with  me  that  though 
my  body  sleep,  yet  my  soul  may  forever  be  watchful 
that  my  soul  sleep  not  in  sin.  Let  the  remembrance  of 
Thy  goodness  be  first  and  last  with  me,  and  so  unite  my 
heart  to  thee  with  habitual  charity  that  all  my  actions 
and  sufferings  may  glorify  Thee  and  serve  Thy  honor 
and  truth  in  the  world.  And  grant,  0  Lord,  that  at  last, 
escaping  from  the  darkness  of  this  world,  I  may  come 
to  the  land  of  everlasting  rest,  in  Thy  light  to  behold 
light  and  glory,  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.     Amen. 

VIII. 

Rex  tremendse  majestatis, 
Qui  salvandos  salvas  gratis, 
Salva  me,  fons  pietatis. 

IX. 

Recordare,  Jesu  pie, 
Quod  sum  causa  tuae  viae, 
Ne  me  perdas  ilia  die. 


262  A  BOOK  OF  PRAYERS. 


A  PEAYER  FOR  THE  EVENING. 

r\  LORD,  Heavenly  Father,  the  darkness  and  the 
^^^  light  are  both  alike  unto  Thee,  and  both  alike 
summon  my  soul  to  Thy  presence,  —  the  one  to  ask  for 
guidance  while  I  act,  the  other  for  keeping  while  I  rest. 
To  Thee,  0  Lord,  I  now  draw  near ;  turn  Thee  unto  me, 
and  have  mercy  upon  me.  Look,  0  Lord,  upon  Thy 
weak,  dependent  child,  with  gracious  thoughts.  Suffer 
me  to  come  even  to  Thy  seat ;  to  lay  upon  Thy  hands 
my  life,  my  soul,  my  cares,  my  all.  Behold  me,  0  my 
God ;  I  can  carry  my  burdens  no  farther  now ;  I  must 
pause  and  rest;  I  must  sink  for  a  season  out  of  the 
world,  that  I  may  yet  stay  in  it. 

Into  thy  hands,  O  my  God,  I  commit  my  spirit.  To 
Thee  I  intrust  all  that  I  have,  all  that  I  love.  Be 
pleased,  0  God,  I  entreat,  to  take  this  charge  of  mine 
and  me  upon  Thyself.  At  Thy  feet,  0  God,  I  lay 
down  my  life  this  day,  —  all  the  work  I  have  done,  all 
the  thoughts  of  my  heart,  all  the  trials  I  have  suffered 
and  the  blessings  I  have  enjoyed,  and,  alas !  the  sins  I 
have  committed.  All  my  life,  O  Lord,  I  lay  it  down 
before  Thee.  Look  upon  it  in  the  greatness  of  Thy 
compassion.  Marked  with  my  own  imperfections, 
and  stained  with  the  common  depravity,  I  know  it 
cannot  meet  Thine  acceptance  for  its  own  sake.  Oh, 
for  His  sake  whose  vast  sacrifice  in  our  belialf  com- 
pensates our  failures  and  our  sins,  let  Thy  pardon  cover 
the  sinfulness  and  cure  the  evil  of  my  day's  life,  this 
day. 


A  BOOK  OF  PRAYERS.  263 

Oh,  let  the  washings  of  regeneration  wash  out  the 
stains  of  sinful  contacts  with  an  evil  world  upon  my 
soul.  Let  me  bear  away  with  me  into  the  future  from 
this  day  nothing  of  the  evil  I  have  seen  or  suffered; 
and  let  every  impression  of  truth  and  beauty  and 
goodness  be  fixed  forever  upon  my  soul. 

I  pray  Thee,  0  my  Father,  for  all  in  this  wide  world 
whose  lives  are  linked  by  any  ties  with  mine.  Be 
pleased,  0  Lord,  to  take  them  each  into  Thy  favor. 
Let  Thy  constant  blessing  make  them  rich  in  every 
true  good  of  life,  and  may  Thy  gracious  hand  guide 
them  and  me  to  the  blest  reunion  of  all  thy  children 
in  their  heavenly  mansions. 

0  Lord,  hasten  Thy  kingdom  and  coming,  when 
there  shall  be  no  more  sorrow  nor  crying,  and  when 
Thy  word  shall  be  fulfilled  which  saith,  "There  shall 
be  no  night  there." 

0  Lord,  I  bless  Thee  for  all  Thy  gifts,  I  adore  Thy 
glorious  majesty,  I  trust  Thy  boundless  love,  and  I 
beseech  Thee  to  accept  me  in  Thy  Beloved,  our  Lord 
and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ.     Amen. 


Quaerens  me  sedisti  lassns, 
Redemisii  crucem  passus, 
Tantus  labor  non  sit  cassus. 

XI. 

Juste  Judex  ultionis, 
Donum  fac  remissionis 
Ante  diem  ratiouis. 


264  A  BOOK  OF  PRAYERS. 


A  LITANY. 


/^  GOD,  the  Father  Almighty,  source  and  essence 
^'^  of  life,  my  soul  which  came  forth  from  Thee 
turns  now  to  seek  Thee,  and 

/  beseech  Thee,  hear  my  prayer. 
O  God,  merciful  and  gracious,  whose  love  is  an  in- 
finite ocean  of  tenderness  in  which  all  Thy  creatures 
live  and  move, 

/  beseech  Thee,  hear  my  prayer. 
O  God,  everlasting  Father,  who  for  us  and  for  our 
sins  didst  enter  into  our  nature,  to  assume  as  Thine 
own  our  cause,  our  woes  and  wants, 
/  beseech  Thee,  hear  my  prayer. 
That  it  may  please  Thee  to  acknowledge  me  among 
Thy  children  whom  Thou  dost  accept  to  Thine  ever- 
lasting favor, 

/  beseech  Thee,  hear  my  prayer. 
That  it  may  please  Thee  to  endow  my  soul  with  the 
gifts  of  Thy  grace,  to  fit  me  for  all   the  labors   and 
burdens  of  my  life, 

/  beseech  Thee,  hear  my  prayer. 
That  it  may  please  Thee  to  show  me  Thyself,  and 
aid  me  to  a  just  recognition  of  Thee  in  all  Thy  rela- 
tions to  my  life, 

/  beseech  Tliee,  hear  my  prayed'. 
That  it  may  please  Thee  to  write  Thy  law  deeply 
upon  my  heart,  and  make  me  to  feel  daily  the  powers 
of  the  world  to  come, 

/  beseech  TJiee,  hear  my  prayer. 


A   BOOK   OF  PliAYERS.  265 

From  all  unbelief,  distrust,  and  slavish  fear  of  Thee, 

0  Lord,  deliver  me. 
From   all   idolatry  of  any  or   all  Thy  works,  from 
setting  them  in  the  place  of  Thee,  the  living  God, 
0  Lord,  deliver  me. 
From  pride  of  reason,  from  presumptuous  imagina- 
tions,    from    all    blindness    of    heart,   vainglory,   and 
hypocrisy, 

0  Lord,  deliver  me. 
From  the  unreasonable  dominion  of  my  tastes,  from 
uncharitableness  and  neglect  of  other  souls, 
0  Lord,  deliver  vie. 
From  all  thoughtless  words,  from  all  sarcastic  and 
critical   dispositions,   from  wounding   any   by  unkiud- 
ness, 

0  Lord,  deliver  me. 
From  all  haste  and  loss  of  self-possession,  from  im- 
patience and  a  troubled  mind, 
0  Lord,  deliver  7ne. 
In  the  day  of  my  trial  and  affliction,  in  sufferings  of 
mind  and  pains  of  body,  in  mortifications  of  pride  and 
in  loss  of  esteem, 

0  Ljord,  grant  me  Tliy  peace. 
In  solitudes  and  secret  places,  and  whensoever  I  am 
alone  with  myself, 

/  beseech  Thee,  he  with  my  spirit. 
In  the  society  of  others,  amid  the  gay  and  glad  and 
amid  the  mourning  or  oppressed,  from  losing  my  true 
self  through  sympathy,  and  from  losing  my  opportuni- 
ties through  want  of  it, 

/  beseech  Tlue,  preserve  me,  0  Lord. 
That  it  may  please   Thee  to  bless  all  that  I  love, 


2G6  A  BOOK  OF  PRAYERS. 

whosoever  and  wheresoever  they  are,  with  safety  and 
health  and  Thy  favor  to  their  souls, 
/  beseech  Thee,  hear  my  prayer. 
That  it  may  please  Thee  graciously  to  regard  and 
help  all  forsaken  and  forgotten  souls,  whom  death  or 
sin  has  bereaved  of  earthly  friends,  and  who  have 
none  to  pray  for  them  by  name, 

0  Lord,  I  beseech  Thee,  hear  my  prayer. 

That  it  may  please   Thee   to  have  mercy  upon  all 
souls  deluded  and  lost  in  error,  and  mercifully  deliver 
them  into  the  knowledge  of  Thy  truth, 
/  beseech  Thee,  hear  my  prayer. 

By  the  greatness  of  Thy  love,  declared  in  all  Thy 
works  and  word, 

Listen  to  my  supplications,  0  Lord. 

By  the  sacred  mystery  of  Thy  holy  Incarnation, 
by  Thy  cross  and  passion,  by  Thy  precious  blood  of 
atonement,  and  by  all  the  pledges  of  promise  in  Thy 
Word, 

1  beseech  Thee,  hear  my  prayer. 

By  the  utter  weakness  and  dependence  of  my  life 
and  soul  upon  Thy  grace,  and  the  dread  terrors  of 
separation  from  Thy  love, 

/  beseech  Thee,  hear  me,  0  my  God. 
Day  by  day,  in  common  labors  and  in  sudden  trials, 
in  unobserved  employments  and  in  public  walks, 
0  Lord,  I  beseech  Thee,  be  with  my  spirit. 
In  the  last  sad  hours  of  life,  in  the  dark  mystery  of 
death,  at  the  entrance  of  the  eternal  world,  before  Thy 
throne  of  judgment,  and  through  the  endless  ages, 

0  Lord,  L  beseech  Thee,  keep  me  in  Tliy  love,  forever 
and  for  evermore. 


A  BOOK  OF  PRAYERS.  267 

0   Lord   most  holy !   0  Father  Ahiiighty  !   0   ever- 
blessed  Christ,  Son  of  God  and  Son  of  Man  !  O  Holy 
Ghost,  ever-blessed  God  in  us,  the  Comforter! 
Have  mercy  upon  me,  and  hear  my  prayer. 

Amen. 


XII. 

Ingemisco  tanquam  reus, 
Culpa  rubet  vultus  nieus, 
Supijlicaiiti  parce,  Deus ! 

XIII. 

Qui  Mariam  absolvisti, 
Et  latronem  exauuisti, 
Mihi  quoque  spem  dedisti. 


A  PEAYER  FOR  EVENING   USE. 

r~\  LOPiD,  my  Heavenly  Father  !  Thou  art  the  only 
^-'^  fountain  of  all  human  excellence.  All  that  en- 
nobles or  adorns  the  soul,  all  that  enriches  the  life  with 
value  for  others  or  profit  for  myself,  must  come  from 
Thee.  Hear  me  when  I  call,  0  God  of  my  righteousness. 
All  my  springs  are  in  Thee. 

I  take  courage  to  call  upon  Thee,  because  Thou  hast 
been  my  help.  In  all  the  ages  and  changes  of  life, 
in  all  my  wants  and  sorrow  and  distress,  Thou  hast 
helped  me  with  deliverance,  or  else  with  grace  to 
endure  my  lot.  Have  mercy  upon  me  now,  and  hear 
my  prayer. 


268  A  BOOK  OF  PRAYERS. 

I  thank  Thee,  O  God,  that  Thou  hast  revealed  Thy- 
self to  me  when  I  was  following  after  empty  vanities 
and  deluded  with  false  dreams,  going  willingly  with  the 
godless  multitude  in  paths  of  impiety,  despising  and 
neglecting  Thy  love.  I  bless  Thee,  O  God,  that  Thou 
wilt  accept  souls  so  unworthy  as  mine,  and  make  me 
Thine  own  by  a  gracious  adoption,  and  hear  my  prayers 
when  my  wants  bring  me  to  Thy  throne.  Before  Thy 
holy  majesty,  and  covered  with  my  sinfulness,  /  stand 
in  awe,  and  earnestly  desire  to  be  holy.  /  commune 
with  my  own  heart  upon  my  bed,  and  long  to  be  in  per- 
fect peace  with  Thee,  that  my  restless  heart  may  be 
stilled  by  the  power  of  Thy  benediction. 

How  vainly,  0  Lord,  have  my  wandering  desires 
sought  to  find  a  real  good  in  material,  temporal  bless- 
ings !  In  alienation  from  Thee  is  only  despair  and 
death  for  me.  In  Thy  favor  is  life,  and  in  the  sense  of 
Thy  love  is  greater  good  than  in  all  the  world  beside. 

0  Lord,  lift  Thou  up  the  light  of  Thy  countenance  upon 
me.  Grant  me,  I  beseech  Thee,  a  constant  apprehen- 
sion of  Thy  presence  and  love,  for  this  is  my  supreme 
good. 

0  Lord,  beneath  Thy  gracious  sheltering  care  /  will 
lay  me  down  in  peace  and  sleep.  In  Thy  hand  no  dan- 
ger shall  reach  my  soul.  Through  Thy  guardianship 
no  evil  can  come  nigh  my  dwelling.     Into  Thy  hand 

1  commit  myself  for  all  time  and  all  eternity,  look- 
ing for  Thy  mercy  through  Thy  holy  Son,  our  Saviour. 
Ame7i. 


A  BOOK  OF  PKAYERS.  269 


A   MOTHER'S   PEAYER  FOR   HER   CHILDREN 

f^  GOD,  my  Heavenly  Father !  Thou  hast  made  me 
^^^  with  wants  which  so  vastly  transcend  my  powers, 
and  loaded  my  life  with  interests,  fears,  and  hopes  which 
I  can  only  carry,  and  not  control !  Thou  hast  reserved 
to  Thyself  the  command  over  every  source  of  good  and 
evil  to  my  life.  I  humbly  beseech  Thee,  therefore,  that 
I  may  come  to  Thee,  because  I  have  nowhere  else  to  go; 
and  my  spirit  must  go  somewhere,  witli  its  burdens  of 
prayer  and  anxiety  for  those  whom  Thou  hust  given 
me.  I  thank  Thee,  0  my  Father,  for  my  cliikh'en,  and 
for  every  grace  with  which  Thou  hast  endowed  them. 
I  thank  Thee  for  every  qualification  which  they  possess 
for  the  life  that  is  before  them,  in  health,  and  intel- 
lectual capacity,  and  moral  dispositions.  I  bless  Thee, 
0  God,  for  their  affection  and  confidence,  and  for  every 
hold  that  I  have  upon  their  hearts.  Thou  art  gracious 
unto  me  in  these  gifts.  I  bless  Thee  for  all  the  pure 
delight,  the  speechless  love,  that  I  have  felt  in  my  little 
ones  when  as  infants  they  lay  in  my  arms,  and  for  tlie 
pleasant  hopes  that  their  after  years  have  wakened  in 
my  heart.  But,  0  God,  Thou  seest  into  my  soul,  and 
Thou  readest  all  the  anxieties  of  my  love. 

O  my  Father,  life  is  so  fearful  a  trial,  so  constant  an 
exposure,  of  the  soul.  The  world  is  so  full  of  evil,  and 
over  life  hangs  the  dreadful  possibility  of  ruin,  and 
hopeless  sorrow.  I  can  but  feel  these  deep  anxieties, 
and  come  to  Thee  for  help  and  grace  to  my  chil(h'cn 
and  to  myself.     O  God,  hear  my  prayer.     I  beseech 


270  A  BOOK  OF  PRAYERS. 

Thee,  make  my  children  Thine  also.  Keep  them  from 
the  evil  that  is  in  the  world.  Give  them  a  horror  of  all 
vileness,  a  love  of  all  goodness.  Oh,  let  not  the  fasci- 
nations of  pleasure  overpower  their  conscience,  or  the 
awful  unbelief  of  the  world  destroy  their  faith  in  Thee. 
They  must  indeed  be  tried,  they  must  be  tempted, 
but  0  God,  I  beseech  Thee,  keep  them  in  their 
temptation. 

I  pray  Thee,  grant  me  grace  to  do  for  them  all  that  I 
can  do.  Help  me,  0  Lord,  lest  I  fail  to  represent  Thy 
love  and  truth  to  them  aright.  Help  me  to  show  a  just 
and  constant  affection  to  them,  never  weakly  indulgent, 
and  never  coldly  indifferent. 

0  Lord,  Thou  seest  my  heart;  be  compassionate  to 
my  fears.  Through  the  perils  that  fill  their  path  in  life 
I  pray  Thee  preserve  them.  May  their  experience  of 
evil,  of  sorrow,  and  of  sin  beget  in  them  a  saving  sense 
of  dependence  upon  Thee.  May  all  the  blessings  of 
Thy  goodness  make  them  grateful  and  charitable.  And 
oh,  may  Thy  truth  and  word  dwell  in  their  hearts  and 
minds,  preserving  them  from  the  delusions  of  error, 
from  the  impositions  of  the  designing,  and  from  igno- 
rance of  their  immortal  relations  and  wants. 

O  God,  the  fountain  of  life  is  with  Thee.  From  Thee 
I  have  received  these  living  souls  that  call  me  mother. 
Thou  art  the  Father  of  their  spirits  ;  oh,  gather  them 
and  me  to  the  house  of  mansions  at  last,  safely  to  rest 
in  Thy  love  forever  :  through  Jesus  our  Saviour.    Amen. 


A  BOOK   OF  PRAYERS.  271 


A  PRAYER  FOR  HELP   IN   COMMON    LIFE. 

/^  LORD,  my  Heavenly  Father,  I  come  before  Thee 
^-^     in  the  midst  of  the  common  relations  of  life  with 
which  Thou  hast  surrounded  me.     I  desire  to  bring  my- 
self with  these  relations  unto  Thee.     It  is  by  them  that 
I  feel  myself  accused ;  and  I  confess  M'ith  sorrow  how 
incompetent  and  unfaithful   I  have   been.     I  beseech 
Thee  to  help  me  to  enter  into  my  daily  work,  into  my 
intercourse  with  my  family,  my  servants,  my  neighbors, 
and  into  my  solitary  employments,  with  a  more  true 
and  profitable  spirit.     I  beseech  Thee,  pardon  the  dis- 
content which  has  so  often  complained  of  my  lot  and 
longed  for  other,  or  happier,  or  higher  fortunes.     Thou 
hast  made   my  place  in  the    world  for  me ;  I  would 
therefore  take  it  with  all  my  heart,  and  bring  into  it  all 
the  powers  Thou  hast  given  me.     Oh,  help  me  to  find 
at  home  what  I  seek  abroad.     Help  me  to  find  my  best 
and  dearest  joys  in  the  persons  and  employments  near- 
est to  me.     Deliver  me,  0  Lord,  from  perverted  aspira- 
tions.    Oh,  deliver  me  from  the  selfishness  that  seeks 
its   own   apart   from   that    unselfish    devotion   of  love 
through  which  "our  own"  must   always   come  to  us. 
0  God,  save  me  from  sinning  against  love.     Grant  me 
love  enough  for  all  my  relations  to  all  others ;  let  me 
not  be  poor  in  this  only  power  to  live   aright.     And 
teach  me  how  to  love,  and  how  to  show  my  love,  and 
how  to  bless  others  with  it.     I  would  gladly  exchange 
the  narrow  anxieties  for  myself,  for  the  more    painful 
solicitude  for  others.     O  Lord,  Thou  wilt  compassion- 


272  A  BOOK  OF  PRAYERS. 

ately  see  my  weakness  and  frequent  failures,  for  it  has 
pleased  Thee  so  to  try  me  daily,  hy  the  duties  and  diffi- 
culties of  my  daily  work  in  the  world.  And  it  is  by 
these,  0  God,  that  I  am  tried,  more  than  by  all  the  un- 
foreseen or  uncommon  events  of  life.  Oh,  make  me  able 
not  only  to  fill  my  place  and  do  its  work,  but  to  find 
my  peace  and  my  rest  in  it.  Alas  !  O  Lord,  my  wings 
are  ever  fluttering  for  flight ;  my  eyes  are  ever  on  the 
far  enchanted  heights  ;  I  am  ever  thinking  of  Thee  as 
far  away  in  some  crystal  sphere  of  white  and  dazzling 
glory  ;  the  future  is  ever  pulling  me  out  of  the  present ; 
my  life  is  torn  and  divided  because  I  cannot  bring 
heaven  into  the  bounds  of  my  life  in  this  world,  or 
transcend  those  bounds  to  find  the  heaven  beyond.  Oh, 
teach  me  to  do  both,  and  especially  the  first,  —  to  live 
as  an  angel  would  who  should  take  my  life  to  live, 
never  feeling  that  heaven  was  beyond  his  reach.  O 
Lord,  I  pray  Thee,  help  me  to  travel  without  leaving 
home,  —  as  we  visit  the  stars,  staying  still  upon  the 
earth.  0  Lord,  take,  I  beseech  Thee,  the  aching  out  of 
my  longings,  and  give  me  joyful  strength  instead.  So 
help  me  to  make  a  chariot  of  my  common  relations 
and  conditions,  in  which  to  ascend  up  into  heaven.  In 
these  Thou  wilt  come  to  me  ;  out  of  these  will  come 
my  judgment,  and  all  the  real  rewards  of  my  life.  I 
know,  0  Lord,  that  if  I  am  ever  crowned  at  all  at  last, 
it  will  be  as  victor  and  faithful  in  these.  0  God,  help 
me!  0  gracious  Spirit  of  Life  and  Love,  strengthen  me  ! 
Now  will  I  take  up  my  life  once  more,  and  suffer  its  obli- 
gations and  cares  to  come  upon  me.  Oh,  leave  me  not 
alone ;  give  me  songs  in  my  heart  to  cheer  me  in  my 
work.     And,  0  Lord,  remember  that  I  am  but  dust,  and 


A  BOOK  OF  PRAYERS.  273 

grant  me  strength  equal  to  my  days ;  that  so  this  eartlily 
life  may  lead  me  at  last  into  the  stronfr,  unwearied  life 
of  heaven  :  for  the  Kedeemer's  sake.     Amen. 


THOUGHTS. 

(From  Marcus  Antoninus.) 

npO  her  who  gives  and  takes  back  all,  —  to  Nature,  — 
the  man  who  is  instructed  and  modest  says,  Give 
what  thou  wilt ;  take  back  what  thou  wilt :  and  he 
says  this  not  proudly,  but  deliberately,  and  well  pleased 
with  her. 

Everything  harmonizes  with  me  which  is  harmo- 
nious with  thee,  0  Universe.  Nothing  for  me  is  too 
early  or  too  late,  which  is  in  due  time  for  thee.  Every- 
thing is  fruit  to  me  which  thy  seasons  bring,  O  Nature. 
Erom  thee  are  all  things,  in  thee  are  all  things,  to  thee 
all  things  return. 


XIV. 

Preces  mese  non  sunt  dignae, 
Sed  tu  bonus  fac  benigne, 
Ne  perenni  cremer  igae. 

XV. 

Inter  oves  locum  prsesta, 
Et  ab  hsedis  me  sequestra, 
Statuens  in  parte  dextra. 


18 


274  A  BOOK  OF  PRAYERS. 

A  LESSON   OF   SUBMISSIOIST   AKD  HOPE. 

(From  the  Greek  Church.) 

T  T  IDE  not  Thy  face  from  me,  0  Lord ;  put  not  Thy 
servant  away  in  anger.  Thou  hast  been  my 
help :  leave  me  not,  neither  forsake  me,  0  God  of  my 
salvation.  0  my  God,  I  cry  in  the  daytime,  and  in 
the  night  season  I  am  not  silent. 

But  Thou  art  holy,  0  Thou  that  inhabitest  the  praises 
of  Israel.  Our  fathers  trusted  in  Thee ;  they  trusted 
in  Thee,  and  Thou  didst  deliver  them.  But  I  am  a 
worm,  and  no  man  ;  smitten  of  Thee,  Lord,  and  afflicted, 
tormented,  forsaken.  Thou  hast  filled  me  with  bitter- 
ness, and  made  me  drunk  with  wormwood.  Thou  hast 
removed  my  soul  far  off  from  peace  ;  1  forgat  prosperity. 

But,  0  God,  Thou  art  my  God ;  early  will  I  seek 
Thee.  Be  not  Thou  far  from  me ;  0  Lord,  haste  Thee 
to  help  me.  I  acknowledge  my  sin  unto  Thee,  and  my 
iniquity  have  I  not  hid.  Oh,  do  Thou  forgive  the  in- 
iquity of  my  sin. 

Thou  art  my  hiding-place ;  Thou  shalt  preserve  me 
from  trouble  ;  Thou  shalt  compass  me  about  with  songs 
of  deliverance. 

I  am  poor  and  needy,  yet  the  Lord  thinketh  upon 
me.  Thou  art  my  help  and  my  deliverer :  make  no 
tarrying,  0  my  God  ! 


XVII. 

Oro  supplex  et  acclinis, 
Cor  contritum  quasi  ciuia, 
Gere  curam  mei  finis. 


A  BOOK  OF  TRAYERS.  275 


XVIII. 


Lachrymosa  dies  ilia 
Qua  resurget  ex  favilla, 
Judicandus  homo  reus, 
Huic  ergo  parce,  Deus. 


AN  ACT   OF  PATIENCE  AND  RESIGNATION. 

(From  Jeremy  Taylor.) 

T  KNOW,  0  God,  that  Thou  art  infinitely  wise  and 
infinitely  good,  and  Thou  disposest  all  the  events 
of  Thy  creatures  to  excellent  purposes,  and  delightest  to 
bring  good  out  of  evil.  Behold,  O  God,  I  am  Thy  ser- 
vant and  Thy  creature;  do  to  me  as  seemeth  good  in 
Thine  eyes :  only  give  me  patience  and  a  long-suffering 
spirit,  that  I  may  not  murmur  secretly  when  I  complain 
openly ;  that  I  may  not  make  haste  in  the  day  of  my 
calamity,  but  with  a  quiet  spirit  expect  and  wait  for 
the  time  of  my  redemption. 

But  make  no  long  tarrying,  O  my  God.  Make  haste 
to  help  me,  0  God  of  my  salvation ;  and  be  pleased  to 
give  me  light  from  heaven,  that  with  the  eye  of  faith  I 
may  see  beyond  the  cloud,  and  look  for  those  comforts 
which  Thou  didst  prepare  for  Tliy  servants  that  love 
Thee  and  put  their  trust  in  Thee,  and  have  laid  up  all 
their  hopes  in  the  bosom  of  God,  And  when  patience 
has  had  its  perfect  work,  be  pleased  to  let  Thy  com- 
forts, 0  God,  delight  my  soul,  while  I  learn  from  the 
things  I  suffer  to  trust  Thy  love  with  dearer  faith  and 
sweeter  rest. 


276  A  BOOK  OF  PRAYERS. 


A  PEAYEE   OF    SUBMISSION 

/^  LOED,  the  God  of  the  whole  earth,  all  souls  are 
^^^  Thine,  and  my  soul  and  my  life  are  wholly  in  Thy 
hands.  I  have  neither  power  to  oppose  nor  right  to 
gainsay  Thy  will.  0  Lord,  look  on  me  now.  Behold,  I 
draw  near  to  make  my  submission  unto  Thee.  My  heart, 
darkened  and  torn  with  its  griefs  and  its  fears,  flees,  as 
a  bird  to  its  mountain,  to  Thee.  In  Thee,  from  whom 
my  trial  cometh,  alone  is  there  refuge  for  my  souL 

O  my  God,  I  confess  Thy  perfect  right  to  do  all  that 
Thou  hast  done,  and  in  all  that  my  fears  anticipate  I 
confess  my  desert  of  the  worst  I  fear,  and  dare  not  lift 
up  my  hand  to  resist  Thy  will,  whatever  it  may  be. 
But,  O  my  Father,  I  cannot  bear  alone  my  load  of  life. 
I  do  tremblingly  say  Thy  will  be  done.  Oh,  give  me 
power  to  accept  Thy  will  without  fear,  —  to  lay  myself 
at  Thy  feet,  without  a  wish  for  more  of  any  earthly 
good  or  less  of  any  earthly  evil  than  the  day  brings  to 
me.  Thou  hast  created  the  affections  which  life  wounds 
and  bereaves ;  Thou  wilt  look  pitifully  upon  the  bleed- 
ing of  their  wounds.  Thy  hand  controls  the  changes 
of  ray  life,  and  Thy  will  measures  out  my  lot  to  me. 
Oh,  be  patient  with  the  weakness  of  a  soul  ungrown 
and  ignorant.  My  heart  clings  to  its  idols,  and  it  is 
hard  to  forsake  them  and  cling  to  Thee  alone.  They 
are  so  near,  and  Thou,  to  my  weak  faith,  so  far.  Thou 
liidest  Thyself,  and  Thy  greatness  is  so  great  above  me 
that  I  cannot  always  feel  Thy  sympathy  for  me. 

0  my  Fatlier,  I  am  dumb  before  Thee.  I  dare  not 
urge  my  prayer,  I  dare  only  to  leave  myself  in  Thy 


A  BOOK  OF  PRAYERS.  277 

hands,  and  hold  myself  ready  to  accept  even  the  worst 
that  can  come.  Yet  oli,  he  merciful !  Remember, 
Lord,  how  frail  I  am.  My  heart  teaches  me  that  I 
have  no  right  to  ask  exemption  from  any  evil  I  suffer 
or  any  sorrow  which  I  fear;  but,  0  God,  I  beseech 
Thee,  measure  not  Thy  goodness  by  my  desert.  I  am 
Thy  creature.  Thou  hast  brought  me  into  being.  Spare, 
0  Lord,  the  work  of  Thine  hand.  Crush  not  utterly  a 
soul  that  cries  to  Thee  out  of  deep  weakness  and  de- 
pendence. Lo,  I  submit  myself  to  Thy  will,  venturing 
only  to  implore  with  humility  Thy  mercy,  to  temper 
for  me  Thy  deserved  judgments,  and  that  whatever  it 
shall  please  Thee  to  take  away  from  me,  it  may  please 
Thee  to  leave  me  the  comfort  of  Thy  peace,  and  leave 
not  my  soul  to  be  bewildered  by  its  trials,  and  fall 
through  despair  into  outer  darkness. 

O  Christ,  who  in  the  Garden  and  on  the  Cross  didst 
touch  the  very  deeps  of  human  grief  and  pain,  be 
gracious  unto  me  in  the  hour  of  darkness  and  grief. 
O  Father,  for  His  sake  be  merciful  unto  me.  Amen. 
Amen. 


SENTENCES    OF  COMFORT  IN   SORROW. 

A  S  a  father  pitieth  his  children,  so  the  Lord  pitietli 
them  that  fear  Him. 
He  will  not  always  chide,  neither  will  He  keep  His 
anger  forever. 

When  He  hath  tried  me,  I  shall  come  forth  as  gold. 
And  it  shall  come  to  pass  that  at  evening  time  it 
shall  be  liiiht. 


278  A  BOOK  OF  PRAYERS. 


AN  ACT   OF  HOPE. 


/^  GOD,  my  Heavenly  Father !  I  draw  near  to  Thee 
^^^  and  thankfully  call  upon  Thy  name  to  bless  Thee 
for  the  nature  and  the  living  soul  that  Thou  hast  given 
me,  and  for  the  possibility  of  a  great  and  everlasting  life. 
Hitherto  my  life  has  wandered  in  strange  paths  which 
I  have  not  known,  but  I  can  thankfully  see  that  Thou 
hast  led  me  about  and  instructed  me  by  all  througli 
which  I  have  passed.  I  can  see  that  my  life  has  been 
a  plan  to  develop  and  instruct  and  save  my  soul,  and 
can  therefore  the  more  easily  trust  myself  to  Thee  for 
the  ages  to  come. 

O  Lord,  I  thank  Thee  for  the  great  and  precious 
hopes  I  cherish  in  my  secret  heart  of  the  life  to  come. 
My  heart  reaches  forth,  exultant,  to  grasp  the  perfec- 
tion of  nature  and  life  which  awaits  me  in  the  blessed 
home  which  Thou  hast  prepared  for  Thy  earth-born 
children.  I  thank  Thee  that  I  can  overlook  the  inter- 
vening years,  and  reach  by  faith,  and  for  a  season  rest 
in,  that  "  remaining  rest." 

O  God,  Thou  hast  indeed  made  the  plan  of  man's 
life  great  and  good,  and  he  who  has  health  of  body  and 
strength  of  soul  to  subdue  and  conquer  it  and  enjoy  its 
resources  finds  it  even  in  this  world  rich  and  blessed. 
Oh,  I  thank  Thee  that  I  too  shall  some  time  be  master 
of  life,  stronger  than  all  external  forces,  crowned  king 
of  life,  reigning  with  strong  and  easy  sway  over  life's 
difficulties  and  tributaries ;  and  that  that  which  now 
exhausts  my  strength  to  attain,  leaving  none  to  en- 
joy, will  then  be  easy  of  attainment  and  rich  in  reward. 


A  BOOK  OF  PRAYERS.  279 

0  my  God,  I  long  to  rise  to  that  elastic,  inexhaustible 
viofor  of  nature  and  will  which,  however  conscious  of 
exertion,  is  never  conscious  of  exhaustion.  I  bless 
Thee,  0  my  God,  that  when  I  liave  learned  whereon  I 
stand,  Thou  wilt  give  me  that  power,  and  I  shall  be 
done  with  all  my  weaknesses  forever. 

I  bless  Tiiee,  0  my  Father,  for  the  hope  of  holiness. 

1  shall  be  satisfied  when  I  awake  with  Thy  likeness. 
Thou  wilt  wash  me  thoroughly  from  my  iniquity,  and 
cleanse  me  from  my  sin,  and  I  shall  carry  no  longer 
the  hateful  burden  of  self-consciousness  which  has 
been  my  burden  here.  My  soul,  purified  by  Thy  grace, 
may  then  join  itself  to  Thee  unrestrained  by  the  sepa- 
rating sense  of  unlikeness  and  unfitness  for  Thy  fellow- 
ship. I  shall  be  like  Thee,  for  I  shall  see  Thee  as 
Thou  art. 

I  bless  Thee,  0  my  Father,  for  the  hope  of  knowledge 
and  of  truth.  Tliou  hast  ever  spoken  in  parables,  but 
the  time  cometh  when  Thou  wilt  show  me  plainly  of 
the  Father.  0  God,  there  is  so  much  to  know  !  I  bless 
Thee  that  I  shall  know  it  all.  Step  by  step,  with  ever- 
growing delight,  I  shall  walk  through  every  path  where 
Thy  power  and  wisdom  has  gone  before  me,  gathering 
tlie  thoughts  of  Thy  heart,  learning  to  know  Thee  better 
by  all  that  I  learn  of  Thy  works.  For  this  vast  and  end- 
less delight  in  tlie  discovery  of  Thy  truth  and  wisdom 
and  beauty  in  the  universe  T  thank  Thee,  O  God. 

And  I  bless  Thee  for  the  hope  of  love,  the  hope  to 
meet  again  my  kindred  souls  in  more  perfect  relations ; 
for  the  perfect  love  which  waits  to  fill  my  own  heart, 
and  for  that  which  waits  for  me  in  the  hearts  of  others ; 
for   the   bond   of  perfectness   which   makes   heavenly 


280  A  BOOK  OF  PRAYERS. 

society  complete,  and  with  which  solitudes  can  never 
be  lonely  any  more. 

I  bless  Thee,  0  my  Father,  for  the  hope  of  Thy 
glory.  Thou  wilt  show  me  Thyself;  mine  eyes  shall 
see  the  King  in  His  beauty.  I  know  that  my  Ee- 
deemer  liveth,  and  in  my  flesh  shall  I  see  God,  whom 
I  shall  see  for  myself,  mine  eyes  shall  behold,  and  not 
another.  O  Father,  I  have  sought  Thee  in  Thy  works. 
I  have  worshipped  Thee  with  Thy  children.  In  sorrow 
and  in  praise  have  I  drawn  near  to  Thee.  Thou  hast 
been  the  hiding-place  of  my  spirit.  But  Thou  art  a 
God  that  hidest  Thyself;  I  praise  Thee  it  is  not  for- 
ever. I  shall  see  Thee,  shall  look  upon  Thy  glory,  and 
beneath  the  dread  and  infinite  majesty  shall  feel  with 
blessed  rest  and  peace  of  heart  that  Tliou  art  my  God, 
my  Father,  my  portion  for  evermore. 

0  God,  let  me  be  saved  by  hope  from  weak  despond- 
ings,  from  fatal  despair.  Grant  me  grace  firmly  to  trust 
Thy  precious  promises,  and  quietly  to  rest  on  the  pros- 
pect of  the  future. 

Help  me,  0  Lord,  to  feel  these  hopes  as  a  support  in 
my  labor,  a  stimulant  in  all  despondent  moods;  and 
in  the  time  that  seemeth  good  unto  Thee  grant  me  to 
exchange  my  hopes  for  their  fruition,  and  in  that  great 
bliss  to  praise  Thee  for  their  fruit,  as  I  now  do  for  their 
blossom  in  this  world. 

0  God,  I  know  that  every  hope  rests  wholly  npon 
Thy  mercy ;  and  that  mercy  I  entreat  and  trust,  through 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.     Amen. 


A  BOOK  OF  PRAYERS.  281 


AN   OCCASIONAL  PRAYER. 

r\  GOD,  my  Heavenly  Father!  Thou  art  my  God, 
^"^  my  refuge,  my  rest.  My  times  are  in  Thy  hand. 
I  am  as  a  little  child  in  Thy  great,  watchful,  tender  care. 
I  am  as  the  thoughtless,  careless  little  bird,  busy  with 
its  little  life,  singing  its  tireless  little  song,  and  Thou 
the  great,  deep,  warm,  motherly  sky  bending  over  it 
the  long  summer  day. 

0  God,  I  live  I  know  not  how ;  my  days  come  and 
go  in  the  long  procession,  and  I  sit  as  the  spectator  of 
the  pleasant  show.  Thou  spreadest  the  morning  on  the 
mountains,  the  long  bright  sunny  days  upon  the  hills 
and  fields,  and  the  wide,  holy  scene  of  peace  breathes 
to  me  in  silent  murmurs  the  mother-song  of  love. 

0  God,  it  is  good  to  live,  it  is  so  good  to  live,  when 
Thy  peace  is  upon  the  earth,  and  falls  as  a  mantle  of 
light  upon  my  heart ! 

0  blessed  Father,  my  heart  rejoices  in  the  wondrous 
love  and  beauty  in  which  I  and  the  world  are  em- 
bosomed. I  love  my  weakness,  I  rejoice  in  my  little- 
ness, that  I  may  feel  the  more  Thy  greatness,  and  the 
glorious  supremacy  of  Thy  love  over  me  and  over  all. 

O  Lord,  I  thank  Thee  that  sometimes  Thou  makest 
me  free  from  care,  and  givest  me  a  pure,  simple  soul- 
life,  free  from  time  and  toil.  Thou  art  so  near,  when 
the  world  does  not  separate  me  from  Thee.  I  can 
drink  the  cup  of  the  heavenly  communion,  and  share 
the  dear  rest  and  peace  of  the  spiritual  world,  when 
Thou  makest  for  me  by  sickness,  by  solitude,  a  pause 
in  the  turbulence  of  the  earth-life.     0  Father,  let  not 


282  A  BOOK  OF  PRAYERS. 

the  world  swallow  me  up.  Its  fightings  and  strivings 
are  so  insiguificaut;  help  me  to  live  among  them  and 
bear  my  part  without  entanglement  in  their  excite- 
ments. Oh,  let  thy  peace  keep  my  heart  and  mind 
untrouLled  and  serene.  Oh,  help  me  to  feel  in  my 
heart  the  leisure  in  which  Thou  dost  work  Thy  works, 
and  without  haste  to  do  mine.  Oh,  save  me  from  the 
great  and  increasing  pressure  of  time  upon  my  life. 
Teach  me,  0  Lord,  the  secret  of  labor  that  is  not  toil. 
Weary  and  laden,  0  Saviour,  give  me  power  to  rest. 

I  thank  Thee,  O  God,  that  there  is  also  rest  in  the 
grave,  and  in  the  world  beyond.  O  God,  it  is  good 
also  to  die.  In  the  time  which  Thou  wilt  choose,  oh 
let  me  die,  that  I  may  find  the  life  everlasting,  through 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.     Amen. 


AN   ACT   OF  FELLOWSHIP. 

r\  LOED,  my  Heavenly  Father,  —  Father  too  of  all 
^"^  mankind,  —  I  draw  near  to  Thee,  who  art  my 
spirit's  home  and  rest,  to  comfort  and  strengthen  my 
heart  by  communion  with  Thee  and  fellowship  with 
all  souls.  It  pleased  Thee,  0  God,  to  make  me  one 
and  separate,  to  give  me  a  personal  soul,  parted  by  an 
impassable  gulf  from  all  others,  and  to  appoint  for  me  a 
life  secret  and  separate  from  all  but  Thyself.  Standing 
thus  alone  in  this  great  universe,  loaded  so  with  the  fear- 
ful gift  of  personal  existence,  I  join  myself,  O  Lord,  to 
Thee,  my  weakness  to  Thine  omnipotence,  my  poverty 


A  BOOK  OF  PRAYERS.  283 

to  Thy  vast  wealth.  I  would  take  up  with  serious 
joy  the  honor  of  a  soul  that  belongs  to  myself  and  the 
sovereignty  therein  granted  to  me.  And  I  would  ac- 
cept cheerfully  the  cross  of  isolation  which  must  be 
borne  until  I  am  fitted  to  be  perfectly  joined  to  Thee 
and  the  holy  society  who  are  of  one  heart  and  one 
mind. 

But  I  thank  Thee,  0  God,  that  it  has  pleased  Thee 
to  extend  the  bounds  and  sources  of  my  personal  ex- 
istence by  union  to  Thyself,  and  union  to  the  life  of 
all  my  race ;  that  so  my  life  is  greatened  in  all  its  ex- 
periences and  values  by  the  immense  addition  of  Thy 
life  and  the  life  of  all  men  to  it. 

0  God,  I  stand  up  before  Thee  in  the  ranks  of  hu- 
manity. I  bow  down  before  Thee  to  thank  Thee  that 
I  belong  to  my  race,  and  my  race  belongs  to  me.  I 
thank  Thee  for  the  sympathy  of  a  common  experience, 
by  which  the  dead  of  all  the  ages  are  joined  to  me, 
and  I  to  them ;  that  so  I  can  feel  with  Adam  and  Eve, 
as  if  I  had  lived  with  them  in  their  Eden  and  in  their 
banishment ;  that  so  the  simple  nations  that  filled  tlie 
early  ages  are  alive  and  real  to  me,  and  add  their  life 
to  mine,  —  among  them  I  can  wander  and  be  enter- 
tained, when  an  empty  present  drives  me  to  the  past. 
Thou  givest  me  the  ages  of  history,  the  peoples  that 
are  dead  but  not  perished.  For  me  they  lived,  for  me 
they  live  still,  to  show  me  views  of  truth  and  life  that 
I  should  never  know  but  for  them.  Under  the  crum- 
bling mementos  of  their  long-vanished  life  I  live  a  life 
rich  and  deep  and  wise,  as  if  it  were  the  memory  of 
all  the  life  that  has  perished  from  the  world.  Thou, 
O   Lord,  iuhabitest  eternity  !     I   thank   Thee    for   the 


284  A   BOOK  OF  PRAYERS. 

power  and  privilege  to  inhabit  the  past  of  my  race, 
and  live,  even  though  imperfectly,  that  great  life. 

I  thank  Thee,  0  Lord,  that  Thou  hast  set  me  in  the 
great  circle  of  humanity.  The  life  flows  through  me 
also.  I  share  the  greatness  of  the  great,  the  heroism 
of  the  hero,  the  inspiration  of  the  inspired.  The  great- 
ness, the  heroism,  the  insj)iration,  is  added  to  my  life. 
It  was  for  me.  I  thank  Thee  for  it.  I  thank  Thee 
for  all  the  noble  deeds  of  noble  men,  for  all  the  wisdom 
of  the  wise,  for  all  the  glorious  examples  of  virtue  in 
action  and  in  suffering.  All  that  humanity  has  shown 
of  capacity  for  goodness  and  greatness  is  my  inheritance, 
and  enriches  me. 

I  thank  Thee  for  the  society  and  friendship  of  all 
the  good ;  that  I  can  sit  down  even  now  with  Abraham 
and  Moses  and  David  in  the  kingdom  of  heavenly 
souls,  and  by  a  true  fellowship  share  their  life.  I 
thank  Thee  that  I  have  already  come  to  the  general 
assembly  and  church  of  the  first-born,  and  am  joined 
to  them  and  their  life  by  knowledge  and  sympathy ; 
that  if  they  know  me  not,  yet  I  know  them,  and  stand 
in  the  great  circle  of  their  fellowship. 

I  thank  Thee,  0  God,  that  I  belong  also  to  all  the 
victims  of  sin  and  ignorance  and  degradation;  that 
the  sorrow  of  their  vast  woes  and  awful  dangers  is 
added  to  enlarge  and  deepen  my  life.  I  bless  Thee 
that  they  take  hold  of  me  with  their  blindly  groping 
hands  ;  that  I  feel  them  and  their  woes,  and  bear  their 
l)urdens  with  them,  even  if  I  cannot  help  them  further. 
I  stand  before  Thee,  0  Lord,  linked  inseparably  to  the 
millions  of  Asia,  the  tribes  of  Africa,  the  cliildren  of 
ignorance,  the  victims   of  sin,  throughout   the  world. 


A  BOOK  OF  PRAYERS.  285 

I  would  not  disown  the  outcast  or  deny  my  brother- 
hood with  the  guilty,  the  brutahzed,  the  abject  and 
mean.  My  fellowship  is  with  them  also,  and  I  pray 
Thee,  0  God,  0  gracious  God,  help  them,  save  them. 

I  thank  Thee,  0  God,  for  the  company  and  friend- 
ship of  all  those  who  hunger  and  tliirst  for  Thy  truth  ; 
who  put  off  the  bandages  of  prescription,  and  boldly, 
earnestly,  ask  for  truth  for  themselves.  I  thank  Thee 
for  the  souls  to  whom  Thou  hast  given  this  quenchless 
thirst  to  know. 

I  thank  Thee,  0  God,  for  the  great  life  of  humanity 
past  and  present,  in  which  I  can  bathe  my  own,  and 
feel  myself  a  living  atom  in  a  living  ocean.  With  all 
the  sorrowful  and  all  the  sinful,  with  the  wise  in  their 
wisdom  and  tlie  fools  in  their  folly,  with  the  saint  in 
his  prayers  and  the  criminal  in  his  crimes,  with  the 
happy  in  their  joys  and  the  wretched  in  their  Avoes, 
with  all  men  everywhere  I  stand  in  fellowship  and 
sympathy,  and  humbly  pray  for  all.  It  was  this  hu- 
manity, 0  blessed  Picdeemer,  that  Thou  didst  take  to 
Thyself,  and  to  it  Thou  still  art  joined  in  compassion- 
ate sympathy  and  in  offices  of  redeeming  love.  I  joy 
and  rejoice  to  stand  in  the  great  fellowship  of  this  great 
life  of  my  race.  I  would  gladly  bear  my  portion  of  tlie 
common  burdens,  and  use  all  my  gifts  to  help  the 
common  life.  I  would  take  into  my  heart  a  still  luryer 
fellowship  with  all,  even  the  worst,  —  not  through 
community  of  sinfulness,  but  through  deeper  desires 
for  their  good. 

0  blessed  Jesus,  give  me  to  know  still  more  of  the 
fellowship  of  Thy  sufferings  when  Thou  dost  bear  the 
sorrows  and  carry  the  griefs  of  the  race,  by  that  great 


286  A  BOOK  OF  PRAYERS. 

love  which  makes  their  sorrows  and  dangers  personal 
to  Thyself!  Let  me  too  bear  this  cross  of  the  world's 
woe  and  ruin,  and  help  with  all  my  powers  the  work 
of  their  redemption ;  that  so  my  fellowship  with  Thee 
may  be  more  perfect  by  my  more  perfect  fellowship 
with  all  the  needy  and  wretched  of  mankind. 

0  Lord,  I  beseech  Thee,  gather  my  soul  also  into 
the  glorious  fellowship  of  Thy  redeemed  ones  in  glory 
everlasting,  to  join  in  the  songs  which  celebrate  Thy 
love  forever  and  forever.     Amen. 


A  LESSON   OF   GOD   IN   NATUEE. 

(~\  LORD  my  God,  Thou  art  very  great.  Thou  art 
clothed  with  honor  and  majesty.  Who  coverest 
Thyself  with  light  as  with  a  garment ;  who  maketh  the 
clouds  His  chariot ;  who  walketh  upon  the  wings  of  the 
wind. 

The  sun  knoweth  his  going  down.  The  moon  He 
appointeth  for  seasons.  Thou  makest  darkness,  and  it 
is  night,  wherein  all  the  beasts  of  the  field  do  creep 
forth. 

The  heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God,  and  the  firma- 
ment showeth  His  handiwork.  In  them  hath  He  set  a 
tabernacle  for  the  sun,  which  as  a  bridegroom  coming 
out  of  his  chamber  rejoiceth  as  a  strong  man  to  run  a 
race. 

He  sendeth  the  springs  into  the  valley  which  run 
among  the  hills.  By  them  do  the  fowls  of  heaven 
have  their  habitation,  which  sing  among  the  branches. 


A   BOOK   OF   TRAYERS.  287 

He  hath  made  everything  beautiful  in  His  time. 
How  great  is  His  goodness,  and  how  great  is  His 
beauty  ! 

Consider  the  lilies,  how  they  grow:  they  toil  not, 
they  spin  not :  and  yet  I  say  unto  you  that  even 
Solomon  in  all  his  glory  was  not  arrayed  like  one  of 
these. 

The  invisible  things  of  Him  from  the  foundation  of 
the  world  are  clearly  seen,  being  understood  by  the 
things  that  are  made,  even  His  eternal  power  and 
Godhead. 

The  earth  is  full  of  the  goodness  of  the  Lord. 
Nevertheless  we,  according  to  His  promise,  look  for 
new  heavens  and  a  new  earth,  wherein  dwelleth 
righteousness.  Blessed  are  the  meek,  for  they  shall 
inherit  the  earth. 

He  will  beautify  the  place  of  His  habitation,  and 
He  will  make  the  place  of  His  feet  glorious. 

There  shall  be  no  night  there,  and  they  need  no 
candle,  neither  light  of  the  moon  to  shine  in  it;  for 
the  Lord  God  giveth  them  light,  and  the  Lamb  is  the 
lisht  thereof. 


AN  ACT  OF  WORSHIP. 

r\  LORD  of  all  the  worlds!  0  Father  of  all  the 
^^^  lights  !  from  amid  the  grandeurs  and  the  great- 
ness of  Thy  works  I  humbly  call  to  Thee.  Amid  the 
ceaseless  anthems  of  unspoken  praise  ascending  ever- 
more to  Thee  I  humbly  mingle  my  own  weak  tone  of 
adoring  worship. 


288  A  BOOK  OF  PRAYERS. 

I  thank  Thee,  O  God  that  made  me,  for  eyes  to  see 
the  wondrous  light,  for  ears  to  hear  the  sweet  har- 
monies of  all  natural  sounds.  I  thank  Thee,  0  God, 
for  every  expression  of  Thyself  in  all  these  works  of 
Thy  hand;  for  the  curtaining  clouds,  the  tented 
heavens,  which  bending  down  and  enclosing  all  things 
do  thus  declare  Thine  all-enclosing,  all-slieltering  pres- 
ence and  providence  in  the  world,  making  the  great 
and  wide  immensities  of  space  and  time  homelike, 
near,  and  familiar  to  my  heart ;  for  the  vast  and  varied 
beauty  bathing  all  things,  even  to  the  commonest,  and 
declaring  the  tenderness  and  gentleness  w^hich  bathes 
every  attribute  of  Thy  nature,  every  act  of  Thy  power. 

I  thank  Thee,  0  God,  for  all  the  silent,  quiet  places 
on  the  hills  and  in  the  fields  and  in  the  deeper  haunts 
of  silence  in  the  woods,  —  silent,  quiet  places  where 
Thy  Spirit  broods  and  rests,  ungrieved  by  the  discords 
of  human  life,  and  where  my  spirit  finds  and  feels  Thy 
presence  as  I  do  not  elsewhere ;  silent,  quiet  places,  so 
like  another  world,  and  where  the  spirits  of  the  dead 
gather  on  tlie  outskirts  of  this  world,  and  make  their 
presence  felt  even  to  the  spirit  cumbered  still  with 
its  clay. 

I  thank  Thee,  0  Lord,  for  all  the  wild  luxuriance 
of  all  the  humble  plants  which  Thou  hast  created  to 
cover  the  nakedness  of  the  earth  and  to  fill  its  empty 
places  with  all  soft  colors  and  forms  of  grace,  declar- 
ing thus  the  overflow  and  exhaustless  fulness  of  Thy 
creative  power  and  loving  goodness. 

I  tliank  Thee,  0  Lord,  for  the  mosses  and  the  ferns, 
for  the  creeping  vines  and  the  gentle  race  of  flowers 
which   love   the  forest  shades.     O  most  blessed  God, 


A  BOOK  OF  PRAYERS.  289 

these  declare  Thine  equal  tenderness  for  all,  both  small 
and  great,  and  cure  the  fear  of  barrenness  in  the  long 
future  to  come.  They  are  even  more  than  the  vastness 
of  the  worlds  the  assurance  of  Thy  suiUciency  for  all 
the  wants  of  all  Thy  creatures. 

I  thank  Thee,  0  Lord,  for  the  subtle  sympathies 
that  bind  me  to  Thy  Nature  and  hold  me  in  its  har- 
monies ;  for  the  dear  feeling  of  kindness  to  me  which 
I  meet  in  all  the  elements  of  the  world,  and  for  the 
sweet  sense  of  a  home  in  Nature,  begotten  of  these 
sympathies,  even  when  the  social  home  is  desolate. 

I  thank  Thee,  0  blessed  Father  of  all,  for  all  the 
loving  care  the  world  betrays  by  the  perfection  of  its 
minutest  parts  and  the  beauty  and  joy  of  its  smallest 
creatures.  I  need  not  to  see  Thee,  but  only  more  sen- 
sibly to  feel  the  goodness  of  which  the  world  is  full. 

Blessed  be  Thy  name  also,  O  my  God,  for  all  the 
truth  and  wisdom  which  Thou  hast  written  out  for  me 
in  the  universe  of  Thy  works,  —  the  endless  and  blessed 
studies  for  my  spirit  in  the  long  ages  to  come, 

I  pray  Thee,  0  my  Father,  make  nie  worthy  to  ap- 
pear among  these  pure  and  perfect  works  of  Thy  power. 
Deliver  me  from  all  selfish  ambitions,  I  pray  Thee,  — 
from  all  gross  and  sensuous  passions,  from  all  dominion 
of  pride  and  covetous  longings,  that  I  may  inherit  Thy 
peace,  while  I  share  also  Thy  life  in  Thy  great  Nature. 

O  God,  am  I  not  a  part  of  that  great  Nature  Thou 
lovest  so  well  ?  I  pray  Thee,  O  my  Father,  love  me  ! 
Let  Thy  beauty  be  upon  me  also ;  and  through  all 
these  teachings  of  Thy  love  in  my  earthly  home,  I 
beseech  Thee,  fit  me  for  the  higher  and  still  more 
divine  life  in  Thee  in  tlie  heavenly  mansions. 

19 


290  A  BOOK  OF  PRAYERS. 

I  pray  Thee,  0  my  Father,  hear  my  worship  and 
my  prayer.  Thou  art  ever  uear  me ;  let  me  ever  feel 
Thee  !  In  Thee  I  live,  O  infinite  ocean  of  life ;  let  Thy 
life  quicken  and  animate  my  spirit.  From  the  growth 
of  time  and  the  fruit  of  life  may  my  soul  be  strong  and 
rich  for  the  life  that  opens  by  the  gateway  of  the  grave ; 
and  when  time  shall  be  no  longer,  receive  me,  I  beseech 
Thee,  into  habitations  of  eternity,  with  all  Thine  ac- 
cepted ones  :  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.     Amen. 


THE  END. 


Date  Due 

OE"  1  ^  ^fj 

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1  1 


012  01006  8056 


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